The Effects of a Boggart
by FallenAngelsRevenge
Summary: Naruto gets transported to the Harry Potter world during the battle at the Valley of the End. How will this affect both worlds? Will anyone look for him? And more importantly... what does Naruto's Boggart look like? NarutoXGinny Pairing, Harry's 3rd year.
1. The Arrival

_**~The Effects of a Boggart~**_

~ A Naruto and Harry Potter Fanfiction

~ A/N: Hey, starting a new story here. Looked at the 1,000 + Naruto & Harry Potter crossovers and found only one story with an actual NarutoXGinny pairing (If it's a crossover, give it a crossover pairing!)… and that was under 10K words (No offense to the author) so I decided to try my hand at writing a NarutoXGinny fic. I live in America, so the extent of British slang and common phrases is pretty much whatever I gleam from Harry Potter and Doctor Who XD. Also, the meaning of the story's name will become clear in later chapters :P Hope it turns out well ^_^

~Chapter 1~

As the first droplets of rain descended from the darkening sky, two boys gazed across a battle-torn valley, neither's resolve wavering under the onslaught of wounds, emotions, and – soon – weather.

A dark-haired boy, clad in a blue shirt with his clan symbol on the back and off-white shorts, gazed across the chasm at his rival – a blonde-haired boy about the same age garbed in his signature orange jumpsuit. The two hand-shaped wings sprouting from his back began preparing to lift his weight as he charged his most powerful ninjutsu—the _Chidori_.

The blonde-haired boy, noticing this, began preparing his counter—the _Rasengan_. Using the tail formed from the power of the cloak of chakra surrounding him, he slingshotted himself across the valley towards his opponent.

The two clashed in mid-air, pushing as much power as they were able to into their respective attacks. A sphere of intense energy formed around the two as they collided, the light drizzle transforming into a downpour. The two boys, their attacks nullified, stood suspended in the sphere of energy, gazing at each other with something similar to remorse.

"Sasuke…" the blonde haired youth spoke quietly. "I wish it hadn't come to this. comrades shouldn't fight… not like this."

"Naruto… we aren't comrades anymore. We stopped being comrades the moment I left Konoha." He didn't want to kill his friend, but if it came to it, he would. He needed the power of the _Mangekyō Sharingan._

As the ball of energy began to dissipate, there was a bright flash of lightning and a boom of thunder before the sphere split in two.

The half containing Sasuke continued to dissipate, and as it did, he began to see what had happened. It looked like something out of a work of fiction. The lightning, by chance, had hit the sphere of energy surrounding them, but it had veered away from Sasuke and passed through Naruto's chest. The reaction between the two was bizzare.

The lightning had just… stopped. That was the only way Sasuke could describe it. The lightning was frozen in the sky, trailing down and into the sphere, stopping as it hit Naruto's chest.

The sphere, not influenced by Sasuke's tainted chakra anymore, began changing from bright purple to a crimson red. Sasuke's eyes widened.

The lightning was… _moving!_ The lightning looked like it was seeping down into the sphere of energy, and Sasuke was proven right as the bolt of electricity got smaller and smaller until it disappeared into the sphere entirely.

The ball of energy began disappearing. It wasn't moving, it wasn't dissipating… it was _disappearing_. That couldn't be good. Sasuke took one last look at his friend before he vanished completely. Was he dead? Had he been transported somewhere? Sasuke could only theorize.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Sasuke decided it was time to leave. He dashed off towards Oto, Orochimaru, and – hopefully – more power.

/~{~(~)~}~\

Harry Potter was having an average day. It had started out pretty good, with the new year at Hogwarts starting, but had quickly gone downhill on the Hogwart Express. What Professor Lupin had explained was a dementor had approached Harry after the train had broken down. It had felt like all of the happiness he contained was being forcibly sucked out of him, leaving only the bad memories. Most contained Snape, Malfoy, the Dursleys, or Voldemort in some way or another.

Lupin had driven off the foul creature with a spell Harry didn't know, but really wanted to learn. He didn't like them. Not at all.

Then, Draco Malfoy had taunted him about the confrontation. Something about him just made Harry want to hex him everytime he saw him… maybe he should find out how to cast the Bat Bogey Hex that Ginny had become so infamous for?

Just as he and Hermione had been entering the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony, Professor McGonagall had pulled them aside to talk to Hermione about her schedule, and he had missed the sorting ceremony.

At least now he'd be able to eat. He looked at the piles of food spread across the table and almost drooled. He could already taste all of the wonderous things he had missed out on.

A deafening boom, not unlike an explosion, echoed throughout the great hall and a bright flash of light forced everyone to flinch away and shield their eyes. Many people screamed, and Harry could only wonder what had happened. Was Hogwarts under attack?

When he reopened his eyes, he was stunned. In the middle of the Great Hall, between the house tables and the head table where the faculty and staff were seated, was a large crimson red ball, floating in the air. Electricity and sparks sporadically jumped off of it, some arcing back into the sphere, while others jumped out at the students and faculty.

Others were openly gaping at the spectacle, and several of the professors had jumped up and gotten their wands out. It was obvious that this hadn't been planned by any of the staff. Even Dumbledore looked a little concerned, though one could only tell by the furrowing of his brow and the slight crease in his mouth.

The sphere of energy seemed to be getting calmer, there wasn't anymore elctricity and it seemed to be getting smaller.

Then, the sphere exploded outwards in a burst of electricity and what looked like flames the same crimson red that the sphere had been, leaving only a three foot deep crater and a blob of crimson energy behind. Those closest to the sphere shielded themselves, but didn't seem to be injured in any way, though some of the more caring professors quickly scurried down to check on the students.

They were stopped, however, when the blob of energy started moving. It formed itself into the shape of a person, more specifically a human. Several people screamed once again as another flash of light and a thunderous boom echoed throughout the Great Hall once more. When Harry opened his eyes again, the blob of energy was no more.

In it's place was a boy. The boy – for that was what he had to be, as he looked almost the same age as Harry – fell at least thirty feet to the stone floor, and did not move.

Harry was actually worried. Usually, when something strange happened, it had something to do with Voldemort or one of his lackeys, but this didn't seem like something Voldemort would do, it was too flashy, attracted too much attention to be one of Voldemort's schemes.

Lupin was the first to approach the boy. He had his wand out as a precaution, but didn't seemed to be as concerned about an attack as he was about the boy's health. When he was close enough to see the boy in detail, he cried out in shock and what seemed like concern. Lupin quickly kneeled next to the boy and checked for a pulse.

"Get Madame Pomfrey, his pulse is faint!" He said urgently to Dumbledore as Professor McGonagall and many of the studnts tried to get close enough to see the boy. Harry couldn't see the boy, so he didn't know what had him so worried.

"Do not worry, Remus, I have already notified Poppy and she should be on her way." He said calmly.

As if on que, Madame Pomfrey burst through the doors of the Great Hall, strong-armed her way through the crowd of students and immediately rushed to his side to check on his condition. When she saw the boy she gasped. The boy was lying in the center of a crater. What she saw made her wonder how he was still breathing. Several others around the crater gasped as she ripped his jumpsuit open and stared at the massive hole in his chest. It must have been at least six inches in diameter! Several of the more weak willed spectators looked like they would be sick as the stench of burnt flesh and the sight of the large cavity in his chest gained their attention.

Without a word, she performed as many first aid spells – though they didn't seem to have as much of an affect as they should've on the boy – as she could to help stop the blood flow from the parts of the wound that weren't cauterized and cast a levitation charm to carry him to the Hospital Ward.

Dumbledore apologized to the students, politely asking them to continue eating as he exited the Great Hall to follow her, his stride must slower than the nurse's worried and rushed one.

Everyone who had crowded around the spectacle returned to their seats in a daze – Harry, Ron, and Hermione among those who sat back down. Harry and Ron immediately began an intense conversation about the strange newcomer and his wounds.

"Who do you think that was? Could it have something to do with You-Know-Who?" Ron began excitedly, reducing his voice to a barely audible whisper as he mentioned the renowned dark wizard.

"I don't think so," Harry responded. "Voldemort," He ignored the wince from Ron, "Wouldn't have done something so flashy. He isn't the kind of person who wants to attract attention to his plans." Harry explained.

"But did you see that hole in his chest? That was huge! He _has _to be an Auror or something." He exclaimed incredulously.

"I don't know, that wound didn't look like it was magical in nature…" Harry thought out loud.

Hermione wasn't paying attention to their ongoing conversation. "I wonder what happened to him?" She said, more to herself than to the two boys yapping away across the table from her. "How did he get here, and how did he get those wounds? Moreover, how did he survive them?" She pondered incredulously.

"Maybe he's a really powerful wizard!" Hermione shook herself from her thoughts as a familiar redhead sat next to her. Ginny Weasley wasn't the most outgoing girl, but she was a lot more comfortable around other girls, namely Hermione because she wasn't the gossiping type and always listened to her problems. Hermione knew she had a crush on Harry, and it had started to disappear the previous year, but it had been renewed when Harry had saved her from the Chamber of Secrets.

They began discussing the newcomer and his condition, continuing on for almost an hour before the welcoming feast was over and the prefects led the disorganized first years to their common rooms. The two started towards the Griffindor Common Room, Harry and Ron joining them as they left, still in intense conversation.

"Hey, do you think Dumbledore would let us go see how he's doing?" After several minutes, Ginny's hopeful thoughts broke into their conversation.

"I don't know if that's a good idea…" Hermione started. "We shouldn't be walking around the castle after curfew. And we've no idea which side he's on. He could be a dark wizard." She said sternly.

"Well, you don't have to come if you don't want to, but I'm curious too, so I'm going. Besides, Dumbledore won't punish anyone on the first day of the year unless they do something _really _bad." Ron said just as stubbornly. That combined with the pleading 'puppy dog eyes' look Ginny was giving her made her give in rather quickly.

"Oh, alright… I might as well go to keep you out of trouble." She said reluctantly. Ron could just infuriate her sometimes!

"You coming, mate?" Ron offered to Harry.

"Sure, why not." Harry replied with a shrug.

And with that, they broke off the main hallway and made their way across the castle to the Hospital Ward.

/~{~(~)~}~\

Poppy Pomfrey was amazed. In all her years of working in the Hospital Ward at Hogwarts, she had never encountered a spectacle as unique as the boy lying in one of her hospital beds. She had checked his wounds once again as she laid him down, and was shocked to see that the previously six inch wide hole in his chest had gotten _much_ smaller. Unreasonably so. It must have been three inches narrower! How could a wound that large heal so quickly? She stared at it for several seconds before she realized the she could actually _see_ it's progress. She could watch the hole in his chest get smaller and smaller by the second.

She shooker her head in disbelief. The boy was _not _normal that much was certain. She proceeded to perform her usual checkup, but quickly stopped as they were giving her bizzare results. She tried once again, getting completely different, yet just as bizzare results. One last try confirmed that her diagnostic spells didn't give any reliable feedback.

Dumbledore strolled through the door midway through her last checkup, looking slightly concerned for the boy's well-being.

"How is he doing Poppy?" Dumbledore asked with a sigh.

"I have no idea how he's still breathing, Albus. When he appeared in the Great Hall he had a six-inch wide hole in his chest that passed through both of his lungs and even part of his heart. By all means, he should've been dead by the time I arrived in the room." She said grimly. This seemed to pique Dumbledore's interest, but he didn't say anything.

"What really amazes me is how fast he's healing," She continued. "The hole in his chest is closing so fast that you can _watch_ it if you concentrate hard enough, and his pulse is only getting stronger. None of my diagnostic spells are working on him, either, so I won't know if there's any internal damage or bleeding. At the rate he's healing though, I don't think it matters much." She finished, fussing over the form of the young boy. When her diagnostics failed once again, she took a seat next to the bed and gazed at the mysterious figure before her. The hole in his chest was almost gone by now, that was something good.

"I can't help but wonder what he went through to receive wounds like that…" She near whispered. The boy amazed her, that was for certain, and with the way he was healing, he wouldn't even need any help, but she couldn't help but be worried.

Naruto on the other hand felt like shit. That was really all he could think of at the moment. His entire body was in pain, but his chest felt like Sasuke had shoved _another_ Chidori through his chest, only it hurt a _lot_ more. He could feel the Kyūbi's chakra accelerating his regeneration, but it was taking a while. After several moments his sense of touch came back partially and he would've cried out in pain if he had been able to, but his body seemed to be frozen and wouldn't respond.

After a couple minutes (or were they seconds?), the pain lessened a great deal and he was able gather that he was lying on something soft, most likely a bed. Was he back in Konoha?

His sense of hearing was the next to come back, as he picked out the faint sounds of voices near him. From what he could tell, there were two others in the room, a man and a woman, but he couldn't understand them yet, they were muffled.

He was able to discern the sound of a door opening and several other voices entering the room before his senses came back completely. The feeling of pain in his chest suddenly worsened… considerably. He arched his back and let out an ear-shattering roar of agony before tumbling off the bed and opening his eyes. He heard a few screams – both female – and got to his hands and knees, looking over the low bed he had been laying on at the other occupants of the room and trying to ignore the pain in his chest, which was steadily lessening, though only a little at a time.

There were six people. One elderly man, who radiated an aura of calm and serene, and a not-so-elderly-but-still-old woman who was sitting next to the bed he had been laying on. He assumed these were the two he had heard before, as the other four were positioned near the door.

There were four people who looked about the same age as him, maybe a little younger. Two girls and two boys. The two boys each had some sort of wooden stick out and pointed at him, presumably weapons of some sort judging from the looks they were giving him. Did they really think that wooden sticks would do anything? The two girls were the ones who had screamed. A bushy-haired brunette, who was in the process of getting a wooden stick out (seriously? Sticks?), and a redhead, who looked more concerned for his health than suspicious of him, though it was definitely there.

One thing was certain: Naruto was definitely not in Konoha. He had never seen anyone like these six in Konoha, they were all wearing robes of some kind, and he hadn't seen any stone buildings. Also, judging by the view out the window, they were pretty high up. The only structure that tall was the Hokage Tower, and he definitely wasn't there.

As such, Naruto was cautious of the other occupants. When the older man moved towards him, he jumped up and whipped out a kunai from his leg pocket, brandishing it in a reverse grip and telling the man to keep his distance.

They looked at him like he was crazy. The old woman said something that sounded like jibberish to the man, and he nodded his head. They must have communicated, perhaps a different language?

The old man raised his wooden stick and Naruto got into a ready stance, just in case the old man was stronger than he looked.

The man just raised his other hand in a calming motion and then held his hands up in the universal 'I'm not looking for trouble' gesture. Naruto lowered his guard a little but still gave the man a cautious look – deception was fairly common in Naruto's line of work.

The man raised his wooden stick again, said something in the foreign language, and Naruto felt a tingle go up and down his body. He raised his kunai again, alerting the other two boys in the room and causing them to brandish their strange weapons and the two girls to shrink back a little.

"What was that? What did you just do to me?" Naruto nearly shouted, brandishing his kunai at the old man who was pointing his wooden weapon at him. His eyes widened and he blinked when he spoke in the same language that the man had moments ago and was able to understand himself.

"Yes, yes, that's much better," The man mumbled to himself. "Now we'll be able to communicate without any trouble." The man said to Naruto calmly. Naruto still held his kunai up, not trusting any of the other occupants of the room.

"How can we understand him, Proffesor Dumbledore?" The readheaded girl said quietly. She seemed intimidated by Naruto.

"I cast a translation spell on him so that we could communicate. He appeared to be speaking some form of Japanese though, so any words that do not have an equivalent in English will remain untranslated," The man – now identified as Dumbledore (What kind of a name was that?) – replied.

A translator spell? He could only assume from the context that that translated one language into another language so that others could understand him, but what the hell was he talking about? All he did was wave a stick around and mumble something!

Actually, when he thought about it, ninja could make a few handsigns and spew out a fireball or hold lightning in their hands, so who's to say these people couldn't do something just as crazy?

"I am Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry… but you may call me Dumbledore." Dumbledore said.

Holy shit. That was a _long_ name! What the hell was a Mugwump? School of Witchcraft and Wizardry… well that explained the whole 'wooden sticks' thing, they must be their wands or something of that nature, he had read fairytales with witches and wizards when he was a child.

"Next to me is Madame Pomfrey, the matron of the school and the one who took you here when you arrived… and you did arrive rather spectacularly, I might add." He said with a misceivious look and a twinkle in his eye.

That made Naruto remember what had happened at the Valley of the End. He and Sasuke had clashed, there was a bright flash and a huge boom, and then… he was here. That was all he could remember. He put it out of his mind for the moment. There were more important things at hand.

"And behind me," Dumbledore continued. "are four of our promising young students." He smiled at the four near the door. "Come forward and introduce yourselves, don't be shy." He said with that same twinkle he had seen earlier.

One of the boys came forward first, a redheaded one. He and the younger girl must have been related, the likeness was uncanny.

"I'm Ron Weasley, nice to meet you." He said, holding his hand out. He seemed guarded, as was Naruto, and he still had his wand out in his other hand, but he seemed willing to try a peaceful option. Apparently Dumbledore had a lot of authority. Either that or they trusted him greatly.

Naruto holstered his kunai – though he kept his leg pouch unclasped, just in case – and took Ron's hand and shook it firmly. "Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you too." He said with one of his cheerful smiles. The boy seemed to relax a little as he did so, and the second boy came up next, in the same manner as Ron.

"Harry Potter, nice to make your aquaintance." He shooked hands with this boy as well and smiled once again before looking past at the two girls still near the door. The brunette looked a little apprehensive about approaching him, and the redheaded girl looked a little shy.

"Well come on, I'm not going to bite!" He said with another smile. The redhead seemed to gather some confidence at this and approached him before holding out her hand. "My name is Ginny Weasley," She said. So they _were _related. "I'm Ron's little sister."

He took her hand and shook it. "Pleasure to meet you." She beamed. So much for being shy.

The brunette was the last to approach him, but she didn't seem to trust him entirely. Still, she approached him and stuck out her hand like the others. "I'm Hermione Granger."

He shook her hand and smiled once more, which seemed to relax her a little, but she still seemed cautious. The other three were a bit more relaxed, though they still seemed a little on guard.

Madame Pomfrey seemed ready to burst as they finished introductions. When the last word was uttered, she gestured from Naruto to the bed.

"Now that that's out of the way, lie down! That yell wasn't a very pleasant one and I need to make sure you haven't worsened your wounds." She practically ordered.

Naruto hesitantly got onto the bed. The matron fussed over him for several seconds and waved her wand a few times before frowning. "Well, my diagnostic spells still aren't working… Something is interfering and it can't get to your magical signature."

Magical signature? What was that?

She opened the rip in his jumpsuit a little and gazed at his chest, making Naruto feel slightly uncomfortable. The redheaded girl blushed and looked away quickly, getting a chuckle from Dumbledore. The other three kids stared at him wide-eyed, as Madame Pomfrey sighed.

"Just as I thought, the wound in your chest is almost completely gone, all that's left is a scar over your heart. Though I don't remember the wound being so close to it…" She trailed off. At that, the redhead turned and took a peek at Naruto, her eyes widening along with the others as they all saw his woundless chest that only an hour ago had a six inch hole in it.

"Actually…" Naruto started. "That scar is from something else," He said a little hesistantly.

The younger occupants of the room gave him surprised looks.

"In any case, your regenerative capabilities are amazing." She said, giving him a curious look.

"Yeah, well…" Naruto started with a grim look. "I'm not entirely normal."

"That much is certain," The matron replied. "Do you mind explaining?" She said, giving him an expectant look.

"I'd… really rather not…" He said quietly. The matron looked ready to protest when Dumbledore broke in.

"You don't have to tell us your secrets if you don't wish to. Poppy, does he have your permission to leave?" He asked, earning a grateful look from Naruto.

"Well… if the wound in his chest healed that fast, anything else should've been healed by now, but I don't feel comfortable letting him out just yet. I'd like him to stay in the hospital ward tonight." She responded.

"Very well then," Dumbledore said with a nod. "Now that that's out of the way, what are your four doing up here this late? You're supposed to be in your common rooms." He said to the four pre-teens gathered at the foot of Naruto's bed, another miscievious twinkle in his eye.

Ginny rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "It was kinda my idea Professor Dumbledore…" She said with a nervous chuckle. "I wanted to see how he was doing. I was kinda worried about him…"

That made Naruto blink. A complete stranger was worried about him? Dumbledore chuckled again.

"Well, in any case, I think it's about time you got back to the Griffindor Common Room," He suggested.

The four exited the room, closing the door just as Dumbledore turned to Naruto.

"Now then, mister Uzumaki… I believe we have some things to discuss…" He said, leaving no illusion that Naruto had a choice.

"Yeah, yeah, old man, just sit down, this might take a while…"

Dumbledore chuckled once again and took a seat next to the bed, Madame Pomfrey listening intently as he began his story.

/~{~(~)~}~\

"What do you think Dumbledore will do with Naruto?" Ginny whispered to the others on their way back to the Griffindor Common Room. She seemed kind of excited. The mysterious boy didn't seem all that bad to her, though Hermione seemed convinced that he was evil, or something. Thankfully, the two boys in the group didn't seem to dislike him… they seemed more indifferent than anything else.

"I'm not so sure what to think of him… we still don't know if he's a dark wizard or not." Hermione said stubbornly.

"Well, Dumbledore seems to trust him, so I'll give him a chance." Harry replied with a shrug.

"Yeah, he seems like a good enough guy." Ron added, causing Hermione to give the two a slight glare. She still didn't trust him, but if Dumbledore said it was OK, then she'd just have to deal with it.

They gave the Fat Lady the password and proceeded into their respective dorms, ready for a good nights sleep after the events of the last few hours.

/~{~(~)~}~\

"So let me get this straight… I'm in a place, where the magical populace hides from the non-magical populace, and wizards and witches use magic to solve their daily problems," Naruto said, getting a nod from Dumbledore. "You're the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where people all over the country of Britain go to develop their magical skills," Another nod. "And you've never heard of the Elemental Countries or The Leaf Village, you've never seen a ninja, and you've never seen ninjutsu," Yet another nod.

Naruto had just finished a rough explanation of his life, (Well, most of it. The Kyūbi was a touchy subject that he had skirted around, though if Dumbledore noticed, he thankfully didn't say anything) and had received a rough explanation about the wizarding world from Dumbledore in return, as well as a description of how he had entered this world – which Naruto had to say, sounded kind of badass.

Whatever had happened at the Valley of the End must have transported him to another world or another dimension or something like that, because there was no way he was still in the Elemental Countries.

"Well, since you seem to be stuck here, I believe we should make the best of the situation. I can allow you to attend several of our classes if you wish, though you may not be able to perform any magic at the moment, seeing as you do not have a wand… though you say that you perform these 'jutsu' using only hand seals?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Yeah, the hand seals are used to channel chakra into certain shapes or molds in order to make it easier to perform jutsu. If you get good enough at it you don't need to make as many handseals, sometimes none at all, but that's a lot harder. I can only do that with a few jutsu." He said, grinning and rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Well… in that case you may be able to perform some magic without a wand, though we will still need to get you a wand – that is, if you can perform magic at all." Dumbledore said, getting Naruto's hopes up slightly. "If you don't have any objections, would you mind giving me a demonstration of these jutsu you have?" He asked politely.

"Sure, but you'll need to show me some magic afterwards!" Naruto said excitedly, enticing a chuckle from both Dumbledore and the matron who had been silent for the most part.

He moved to the middle of the room – for more space – and made a couple hand signs, calling out 'Henge!' before a puff of smoke engulfed him, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Dumbledore and a concerned look from Pomfrey.

When the smoke cleared, Dumbledore's eyes widened and Pomfrey did a double take. In Naruto's place was an exact replica of Dumbledore, robes, wand, beard, half-moon spectacles and all.

"Wha-what?" Pomfrey managed to stutter out. They was another poof of smoke and when it cleared a widely grinning Naruto could be seen standing there once again.

"Remarkable…" Dumbledore said quietly. "It's seems similar to a Polyjuice potion in nature, but is much faster…" Upon seeing Naruto's confused look, he elaborated. "A Polyjuice potion is a potion that – with a sample of someones DNA, such as a hair – transforms the drinker to look exactly like that person, down to their DNA and magical signature. It only works for one hour, however, and takes about a month to brew." This earned an understanding nod from Naruto. The Henge was much more practical for everday or on-the-fly use.

"Well, the henge is kinda like that, but it doesn't copy DNA, it just copies appearance. Anyone with enough skill can detect it and see through it, though that's pretty unlikely if there are no ninja here." Naruto said with a sheepish grin. "OK, next one!" He said excitedly, earning a silent nod from Dumbledore.

He made a few more handseals, calling out 'Kawarimi!' and suddenly Dumbledore was standing where Naruto had been. Pomfrey almost thought that it was the same as the first until she realized that Naruto was now standing next to her instead of Dumbledore.

"My word, these jutsu could certainly be useful," Dumbledore said wonderously, getting a prideful smile from Naruto.

"That was the Kawarimi, a replacement technique that lets a ninja switch places with an object or person," He said, reciting the description from the academy. "You can switch with any object, but objects that are similar in size and shape are much easier to switch with. If you think that's cool, just wait until you see the next one!" He nearly yelled in excitement. Showing off to people was fun!

He and Dumbledore switch places – normally this time – and Naruto made a single handsign before calling out 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!' and creating another, much, much larger puff of smoke that engulfed the whole room.

Dumbledore Scourgified the air, causing most of the smoke to vanish, only to widen his eyes in actual shock, his calm façade broken for a second. Pomfrey actually cried out in shock as she looked around to see the entire room was filled with Naruto's!

"What's wrong?" They all said in unison, a smug grin on each face.

"W-what are these?" Dumbledore said, recovering from his shock slightly. "Illusions?"

"Nope!" The copies once again said in unison. A single Naruto stepped through the crowd to speak to the two. "They're solid clones! The Kage Bunshin lets me create clones of myself that can physically interact with whatever's around them." He said, several of the clones proving his point by poking Dumbledore and laughing.

The clones then disappeared in puffs of smoke, and Dumbledore was forced to Scourgify the room again. When the smoke cleared a single Naruto was once again standing in the middle of the room, a wide smile on his face.

"So? What did you think? I've got two more, but they're a lot more destructive and you'd probably need to rebuild part of the castle if I performed them here." He said, nearly bursting with anticipation.

"Those are certainly very unique and powerful techniques, Naruto, even more so than many of the spells that exist in the wizarding world. The ability to clone oneself has been sought out for centuries by various wizards and witches." He praised the boy.

"So are you going to show me some magic now?" Naruto questioned in excitement.

"Unfortunately, the hour is getting late. I know I promised to show you some magic, but you will be attending several classes tomorrow – that is, if you choose to. We will have to arrange to meet sometime and see if you can perform magic, and if I can perform these jutsu. If either of us can, the results could be… extraordinary." Dumbledore said with actual regret at not being able to demonstrate magic to the boy.

"I will give you a schedule for several of the lower years' classes and descriptions of what the classes will entail, and you can decide which classes you will attend. For now, you will sleep in the Hospital Ward, but you can decide if you want to sleep in one of the House Common Rooms at a later date. Now then, have a good night." He said with a nod of the head before heading out the door to – presumably – sleep.

Pomfrey immediately started fussing over Naruto, trying to get him into a hospital bed and to sleep. Naruto complied, slightly irritated but strangely content that someone actually cared enough to fuss over his health. The only people who had ever seemed to care that much were the Hokage, Iruka, the Teuchi's, and perhaps Kakashi-sensei, and an almost complete stranger so concerned about his health made him… happy? He wasn't sure how to describe it. Thoughts of his now un-reachable home, however, put a damper on his mood, which didn't go unnoticed by Pomfrey, who tried to comfort him by putting a hand on his shoulder before leaving for her own bed.

It was good to know someone cared.

Naruto closed his eyes, already dreaming of the amazing things he'd learn the next day.

/~{~(~)~}~\

**_Original Post ~ 2/14/12 ~ 6,147 words_**

**_Edited Post ~ 2/23/12 ~ 6,472 words_**

~A/N: Well, there's the first chapter! Several parts were a little forced, so I hope they came out right. Not entirely sure how much I'll work on this, just decided to get the first chpater out to see what people think. If people like it, I'll work on it more :P Reviews are appreciated!


	2. First Day

_**~The Effects of a Boggart~**_

~ A Naruto and Harry Potter Fanfiction

~ A/N: It's been a little while since I've read the books, so I don't know what the class schedules are exactly, but I looked on the HP Wikipedia and I'm using that for my source, so if they're different (And I believe they are) my apologies, just assume Naruto got transported to a HP world where the schedules are different :P

On a lighter note, that means that the classes won't be exactly like the book, so it'll be (slightly) new. Also, I have no idea how to type Hagrid's speech, but I'll do my best XD

**~ Disclaimer:** I forgot to put this in the first chapter, so here it is – the only disclaimer of this story. I do not own Harry Potter, Naruto, or anything related to the two. The only thing I own is the plot line that my mind created.

~Chapter 2~

Naruto awoke the next morning feeling exceedingly better than he had the previous night. When he thought about it, the Kyūbi was sort of a blessing. He may not have been very well liked in Konoha, but it was purely because of the Kyūbi that he had survived most of his missions – the ones above D-Rank, anyway.

Naruto groggily sat up in the hospital bed, which was actually quite comfortable. He looked down at his ruined jumpsuit and the T-shirt underneath that Pomfrey had ripped to get at his chest and sighed. He had spare clothing in a sealing scroll, but he didn't have an extra jumpsuit. Oh well, he'd just have to deal with it, though the absence of his favorite outfit would darken his mood slightly.

He took the scroll out of one of the ruined jumpsuit's pockets and unsealed a black T-shirt similar to the one he wore under the jumpsuit as well as a generic pair of black ANBU pants, complete with hidden kunai pockets and scroll pockets. He placed the scroll in one of the pockets and changed out of his ruined clothing.

With that, he looked around and found several papers on the bed adjacent to his marked with his name. Glancing at them he found them to consist of schedules for all first, second, and third year classes, along with which houses attended them and at what hours. Each class had a brief summation of what was taught.

Naruto almost immediately ignored the first year's schedules, he wouldn't be able to try anything they learned anyway as he didn't have a wand. If he was going to just sit there and watch, he was going to go to a class that would be interesting, not a boring beginner's class. He would (Hopefully) be learning the basics from Dumbledore anyway.

Defense Against the Dark Arts sounded kind of fun, as did Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration, Charms, and perhaps Potions, but History of Magic was right out. Anything with the word 'History' in it usually was not in Naruto's interest, and the passing glance at the description provided for said class confirmed it.

He glanced at the other papers and found a map of Hogwarts – which was apparently a freaking huge place according to the map – and a note from Dumbledore letting him know that he was cleared to leave by Pomfrey and could attend any of the first through third years' classes. He recommended not going to anything above third year though, because if Naruto _was _able to learn magic, he would already know something about it, and third year classes and below were basically the introductory courses.

Glancing at the schedule, he saw breakfast was about to start and walked out of the Hospital Ward, checking the map as he went. He passed several people in the halls, most recognizing and staring or openly gaping at him as he strolled through the halls. News of his wounds must have gotten out among the students who hadn't crowded around him when he arrived.

As he stepped through the massive door leading into the Great Hall he immediately felt self-conscious. At first, it was only the few people that had been looking at the door when he entered, but within fifteen seconds, the chatter and gossip of the school was gone and almost everyone was looking at him. Naruto glanced around, hoping for anything to distract either him or them, and saw Dumbledore sitting at the head table.

He sent a pleading look to Dumbledore, who had the twinkle in his eyes again, and Dumbledore motioned for him to come up to the head table. Naruto hesitantly approached and, once he was close enough, Dumbledore stood up, immediately gaining most people's attention. Naruto wondered how it was that Dumbledore had so much influence over the students.

"As most of you have realized, standing before you is the very person who so spectacularly entered the Great Hall last night," Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck at that – something Dumbledore had soon realized was a habit. "He is stuck here at Hogwarts for the time being, and hasn't had the chance to learn any magic as of yet," Several people started mumbling to each other at this, and some boys at a table dressed in green laughed. Naruto decided he didn't like those boys, they looked like snobs.

"So," Dumbledore continued. "He will be attending several first through third year classes, to see what magic is like and acquaint himself with the school. At the end of the week – or sooner if he wishes – he will decide which house he will be staying with each night. I hope you will all give him a warm welcome," At that, Dumbledore turned to Naruto and said in a quieter tone "As I recall, you informed me last night that your favorite dish in your home was ramen," He said, earning a nod from Naruto. "I took the liberty of having the castle house elves prepare some ramen in addition to the usual meals, so… enjoy!" Dumbledore said with a smirk and another twinkle. He had added ramen to the meals? Naruto was really starting to like Dumbledore. He seemed to have a slightly mischievous side in him too, which was perfectly fine in Naruto's book. Without further ado, Dumbledore beckoned for Naruto to join one of the tables and sat down once again.

Naruto looked over each of the tables. Dumbledore had described each of the Houses in his rough explanation of the school the previous night, and Naruto had to say he immediately disliked the Slytherins. He wasn't sure if it was the 'cunning and ambitious' traits that Dumbledore had said they possessed or the fact that their house animal was a serpent that reminded him all too much of a certain snake that had caused him all kinds of trouble.

The Ravenclaws seemed alright, but Naruto wasn't the kind of person to thirst for knowledge, so he didn't think he'd fit in with them. Hufflepuffs sounded pretty good to Naruto. Loyalty and friendship were two things Naruto hadn't had much of and for that reason they were two things Naruto valued significantly.

However, Griffindors sounded like the kind of people Naruto would like. Bravery and Courage were things that Naruto had in spades. He looked over the Gryffindor table and was surprised when he noticed a familiar redheaded girl beaming at him and waving enthusiastically for him to come over.

He gleefully complied and walked over to the Gryffindor table, a smile creeping onto his face with each stride. He didn't care that he was getting stares, or that several people were whispering to each other – he was used to things like that.

As he took a seat next to Ginny she leaned over and whispered excitedly to him.

"You're going to be attending classes?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's awesome, right?" He said exuberantly. "I get to sit in classes and see what they're like. I may not be able to do magic yet, but I can still see how it works!"

Now, that wasn't _entirely_ true. The jutsu he could perform could be viewed as a type of wandless magic, drawing on and manipulating reserves of energy within the caster to create the desired effect, but Dumbledore had advised him not to display his abilities unless absolutely necessary.

"So do you know which classes you're going to sit in on?" She asked in anticipation.

"I'm planning on going to the third year's Care of Magical Creatures first, then probably second year Potions, then third year Transfiguration, then second year Charms, then third year Defense Against the Dark Arts, all in that order." He said with a nod while taking a rather large bowl of ramen from the table. He figured alternating years would give him the best balance of relatively simple stuff and more complicated but fun stuff.

Ginny quietly… squealed? That was really the only way Naruto could describe it. The golden trio, however, gazed at Harry with a surprised – and in Hermione's case, suspicious – look. Naruto was starting to get unnerved.

"What? Is something wrong with me?" He asked nervously, giving himself a once over.

"Well…" Ron started. Harry finished for him.

"We're in three of those classes…" He said with a raised eyebrow.

"Really?" Naruto said wondrously. "That's a pretty big coincidence. I only got the schedules today, but I couldn't stand to sit in the first years' classes, they'd be too boring!" He said with a groan.

Ron and Harry just smirked, while Ginny giggled a little. Hermione just gave him a wary eye. Coincidence, huh?

Naruto glanced at the head table and noticed several of the staff in intense conversation with Dumbledore – presumably about his presence. It must not have been _normal_ for a boy to appear with a hole in his chest one night to be walking around the very next day.

Ginny and the golden trio chatted with Naruto over breakfast – pausing only to stare, surprised and a little horrified, when he began inhaling bowl after bowl of ramen – and Naruto learned about several of the teachers. Hagrid sounded like a stand-up guy, if a little on the strange side. McGonagall sounded alright, but Harry described her as a 'caring, but strict' type. Lupin sounded fairly nice, especially after he learned that Lupin was the first to approach him when Naruto arrived. Snape, however, reminded Naruto too much of the biased academy teachers back in Konoha. Maybe the three (Hermione wasn't agreeing with them, but then again, she wasn't denying their claims either) were being a little biased, but he didn't sound like a very friendly guy.

Breakfast ended and everyone started filing out of the Great Hall towards their respective classes. Naruto joined Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they made their way to Hagrid's hut for Care of Magical Creatures.

The foursome, as well as the other third year Gryffindors and Slytherins that had signed up for the class, made their way out of the Great Hall and around the castle to Hagrid's hut, where he sat waiting with several strange looking creatures. Naruto noticed that he was a few inches taller than most of the people walking. Was everyone in the magical word short or had he gotten taller? He ignored it for now. For most of the trip, Harry and Ron were discussing what a class with Hagrid would be like – as well as telling Naruto all about his… quirks – and Hermione was giving Naruto suspicious looks while trying to stay in the conversation. Naruto made a note to pull her aside and talk to her – if only to gather _why_ exactly she was so wary of him.

As they drew closer to Hagrid, Naruto was able to see that the creatures looked like some kind of hybrid between a horse and some kind of bird. Many of the others were staring at the creatures, standing a little ways away from them as they waited for the rest of the students to arrive. The Slytherins seemed to be the most wary of the creatures, while some of the Gryffindors were slowly edging towards them, hoping to get a closer look. When Hagrid noticed this, he quickly told them to stay back until the class began, assuring them that they would be able to get close to them during class.

When everyone arrived, Hagrid explained that the creatures were called Hippogriffs – a mixture of a horse and an eagle – and that they were noble creatures. He explained and demonstrated how to approach them and announced that if anyone desired, they could approach one. Naruto was dying to try, but he wasn't sure if he should, as he wasn't really part of the class. Harry was – surprisingly – the first one to volunteer. Hagrid once again explained how to approach the creatures, and Harry nervously approached and bowed to the one called Buckbeak, who – after a few moments of tense silence – bowed back in respect and then got down for Harry to get on his back.

Harry gave a nervous, though slightly incredulous, look to Hagrid, who only nodded his head. Harry got on Buckbeak's back a little awkwardly, and was almost jolted from his seat when Buckbeak stood up and with a mighty flap of his wings propelled them into the air, flying above the hut and the castle for several minutes before coming back down to earth, the shouts of excitement and joy echoing down to the students remaining on the ground every so often.

Harry got off of Buckbeak's back with an exhilarating grin. He petted Buckbeak once again and went back into the crowd of awe-stuck students, getting a large pat on the back from Hagrid.

By this point, Naruto couldn't resist. He raised his hand and waved it around wildly, reminding several people – including the golden trio – of Hermione in her first year or two at Hogwarts, causing said girl to blush a little at the looks her two friends gave her.

Hagrid chuckled at Naruto's enthusiasm. "Wha' is it, me boy?"

"Can I have a go at it? I know I'm not really a student of the class, but I just have to try that!" He nearly shouted.

"Of course yeh can! Jus' remember wha' I told ya about approachin' em'." He said as a precaution.

One of the Slytherins sneered at Naruto as he spoke. "It makes sense that Hagrid would favor the magically ignorant idiot." He said lowly, earning laughs from most of the Slytherins, as well as some of the Gryffindors.

Harry and Hermione – having substantial experience with 'masks' – were some of the only people that noticed the ever so slight change in Naruto's demeanor. His wide grin tightened just a fraction and his eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

As he walked forward past the golden trio, Hermione was the only one to hear him whispering angrily.

"I know a lot more than you might think, you little pale-faced bastard…" His mumbling continued, but he was – to Hermione's relief, as she didn't know if she wanted to hear the rest – too far away for her to hear. She furrowed her eyebrows at this. Was he hiding something? She had been suspicious of him ever since his peculiar arrival at Hogwarts. She resolved to keep a closer eye on him.

Naruto approached a different hippogriff than Buckbeak and bowed. Surprisingly, the hippogriff immediately bowed back and got down for Naruto to get on. Naruto raised an eyebrow, but complied. Hagrid had a shocked look adorning his features. It was almost unheard of for hippogriffs to accept someone almost immediately. They were said to be able to gauge the personality, heart, and compassion of a person within the first minute of interaction, but this was almost unheard of.

"Tha' one's name is Sharpclaw," Hagrid explained after recovering. "She's usually a lot harder to tame, though – tha's why she's named as she is. I've even had some trouble meself."

Naruto had the decency to look sheepish. "I guess I just have a way with animals." He said with a somewhat nervous laugh.

Naruto got on Sharpclaw's back, holding on tight as she flapped her large wings and lifted herself and her passenger into the air. The feeling was exhilarating as he looked down and saw the hut and the crowd of students getting smaller and smaller as the two rose high into the air. Sharpclaw banked towards the castle as Naruto cried out in amazement. They rocketed past the castle, in-between towers and around spires. Several people cried out as they flew past the windows of their classrooms in the towers, wondering if they had actually seen something or if it was a figment of their imagination.

They passed low over the students waiting on the ground, causing several shrieks – one of which he thought emanated from the pale-faced boy, but he couldn't be sure – before rising, flying almost vertically through the air.

As they began their descent, Naruto got an idea. He had been using chakra to maintain a firm hold on Sharpclaw, but he didn't need even a tenth as much grip as he had at the moment. Thus, as Sharpclaw began to dive towards the ground, he shakily got onto his hands and knees, then slowly stood up on the hippogriffs back, using the chakra in his feet to hold himself onto Sharpclaw's back.

The hippogriff, when she realized what Naruto was doing, looked back quickly and motioned with her head for him to sit back down, concern in her eyes. Naruto had no idea if it was even possible for an animal to be concerned for him, but it _was _a magical creature, so he supposed it was possible. He merely shook his head and gave a confident smile, gesturing to his secured feet, – which under normal circumstances would have been ripped off of her back by now – hopefully reassuring the creature.

It seemed to work as the creature somewhat reluctantly faced forward once again and dived down towards the ground. Naruto was able to see several people pointing as they noticed his upright figure on Sharpclaw's back, and was even able to discern Hagrid's shout of concern.

Naruto smiled a little. It was kind of like a prank. A very enjoyable, exhilarating, and dangerous prank. Sharpclaw gained speed as she rocketed towards the ground, the whipping winds nearly ripping Naruto off of her back, but his chakra enhanced feet held and he was soon laughing the whole way down.

As they neared the ground, several people nearly ran from the group as they thought the pair would smash into the ground. However, Sharpclaw spread her wings suddenly and they slowed almost immediately, landing lightly on the ground. Naruto jumped off of the hippogriffs back, laughing almost hysterically as he landed.

"Oh, man, that was freaking awesome! You guy's should've seen the looks on your faces when we came down!" He said, gesturing to the group of students. Several of them looked at him, horrified, while others smiled a little, Naruto reminding them of the Weasley twins that many thought of as friends.

Naruto approached Sharpclaw once more and petted her head. "That was fun!" He said quietly to the hippogriff. "Do you think Hagrid would let me come out here to do it again sometime?"

The hippogriff merely nuzzled her head into his chest and made a sound that sounded very similar to laughter. Naruto laughed. "I'll take that as a yes!"

As Naruto walked back to the group, he got several incredulous looks, and Hagrid looked like his eye was twitching – though that must have been a trick of the light.

Naruto had barely gone back into the crowd when someone else elbowed his way out of it. Naruto looked out over the crowd once he was back with the golden trio and saw a blond haired, pale faced boy approaching Sharpclaw. His gait seemed to convey confidence, but it was the pompous kind of confidence. The 'I'm better than anyone else' confidence that Naruto had seen so much of from Sasuke in the early days of his experience as a genin.

The boy stood in front of Sharpclaw for while like he was expecting something, but when it didn't come, he spoke. "If you allowed that uneducated dunce to ride you then I should have no problem, so get down and let me on!" He said angrily.

Sharpclaw narrowed her eyes at him. Naruto was gaping at the idiot of a boy standing in front of the creature. Hadn't he been paying attention to Hagrid at all?

Eventually, he just moved forward to seize the hippogriff and climb on. Naruto's eyes widened and he moved forward to stop him, as did Hagrid, when the hippogriff raised her claws to slash the oblivious boy. There was no way Hagrid would get to him in time, he was just too far away – and frankly too large and cumbersome. Naruto ran faster than most people could see as he sped forward and tackled the boy out of the way as the hippogriff's claws came down. He could have just used a substitution, but that was a lot harder to explain to witnesses than sheer speed. As he tackled the boy, he felt the hippogriffs claws rake across his back. They didn't do as much damage, as he had been diving out of the way, but it still hurt like hell.

The two boys hit the ground as Hagrid came rushing forward. The boy immediately got up and glared at Naruto, his hands clenched into fists. "What was that for? Are you getting protective of the damn animal now?"

Naruto slowly got up, brushing off Hagrid's large hand when he offered to help him. He glared at the boy, his spiky hair shadowing part of his face. "If you haven't noticed, I've got some pretty large claw marks in my back now," He said calmly, turning slightly to allow the boy to observe his new injuries, the boy's eyes widening as he finally noticed the semi-deep gashes running down the length of Naruto's back, leaking blood down into his shirt.

"If I hadn't tackled you, it would've been you that had gotten slashed, so I would think you'd be _grateful_ you stuck up bastard." He said, a hint of anger leaking into his voice. He could already feel the Kyūbi healing his injuries, sealing them together. "Next time you do something stupid, I might not be there to save you, so I would suggest _thinking_ before you act all high and mighty." He said with contempt. The boy looked ready to kill him but stayed silent, his fists clenched, and leveled a glare at Naruto.

Hagrid immediately told Naruto to go see Madame Pomfrey, and Naruto resisted, saying he'd be fine, much to everyone's shock. Eventually, Hagrid finally convinced Naruto to go see Pomfrey – if only to get the wounds patched up and stop people from asking questions – and Naruto left several minutes before class ended. By the time he was halfway to the Hospital Ward, his wounds were almost healed.

When he entered the Hospital Ward and Madame Pomfrey saw his blood-stained shirt, she nearly had a heart attack and began fussing over Naruto. He quickly explained what had happened and that he'd be fine, he just needed an extra pair of clothing. Pomfrey – after physically checking his wounds, since her diagnostic spells _still _didn't work – reluctantly gave him clearance to leave, telling him to be more careful in the future and that his advanced healing didn't make him invincible.

By this time, the next class of the day would soon begin, and several students were hurrying though the halls to get to their next class. Naruto checked his mental list of classes to attend and made his way to the dungeons for second year Potions.

He entered the classroom just as classes were scheduled to start, earning a glare from Professor Snape. Naruto could already tell he wouldn't like him very much. He glanced around and found both Gryffindors and Slytherins sitting around at various tables with cauldrons and vials and the like prepared on each table. He decided to just stand near the back of the class – on the Gryffindor side, and observe the proceedings, seeing as he didn't really know anything about potions. Snape gave him a dirty look, but seemed willing to just ignore him for the most part, which was fine in Naruto's book.

He took another glance around and noticed Ginny in the midst of the Gryffindor's, smiling and waving at him enthusiastically again. He smiled back and gave her a small wave before Snape snapped at her to pay attention and shot a glare at Naruto, mumbling about bumbling intruders disrupting his classes.

They were learning a fairly simple (At least that's what Snape claimed) potion that was supposed to change the color of the drinker's hair for about an hour. He put the list of ingredients on the board, as well as what pages to find the instructions on, and then sat down at his desk. Naruto quickly grew annoyed at the so-called professor. All he even did was write the instructions on the board and let them figure it out themselves!

When Snape actually got up and started walking amongst the students he was hopeful that the man would actually start teaching the students, but his hopes were crushed as the man merely walked up and down the rows of tables, sneering occasionally and telling a student that they had done something wrong or how their potions had been badly brewed. Naruto noticed that most of the students he reprimanded were Gryffindors. In fact, Snape rarely commented on a Slytherin's potion, and if he _did_, the comment was usually something good. Snape was consistently giving points to Slytherin students and taking them away from Gryffindor's for various things as well.

Naruto could see why Harry, Ron, and Ginny (and Hermione, to a certain extent) viewed the man as they did. It was hard not to despise him if you weren't a Slytherin.

Naruto had been watching Ginny's potion making, and – reading off of the Gryffindor in front of him's book discreetly – had to say she was doing fairly well. The potion was the correct color, and was thickening like it was supposed to. Snape, of course, didn't think so. As the end of class approached, Snape passed by Ginny's station and stopped.

"Miss Weasley, I have _no _idea what potions book you are reading from, but this is not the potion we are making today." He said, sneering.

Ginny's shocked, then slightly rebellious look – as well as the looks of the Gryffindor's around her – told Naruto all he needed to know. However, nobody spoke up, and Snape smirked.

"There's nothing wrong with her potion _professor_," Naruto started, eliciting shocked looks from many of the students in the room and a dirty look from Snape. "Her potion is the right color and it's in its final stages, it's almost picture perfect." He finished.

"And just how do you know how to brew this potion? I was told you had no experience whatsoever with magic." Snape sneered, with a slightly smug look in his eyes. Several of the Slytherins laughed.

"Anyone can read, _professor_." Naruto said calmly. "It makes me wonder why you're even needed at this school at all if all you do is tell them what pages to read and let them figure it out by themselves, then tell them they're doing it wrong." He continued, earning a dark glare from the greasy-haired potions professor. "A proper teacher would tell them what to do and how to do it, even telling them alternate or better methods, and telling them how to _fix _what they're doing wrong, instead of focusing on how they did something wrong in the first place." Naruto finished, raising his voice just slightly. Several Gryffindor's nodded quietly, casting contemptuous glances at the potions professor.

Snape looked ready to explode. "That will be 50 points from Gryffindor for insubordination!" He nearly shouted.

"I'm afraid that won't work, _professor_," Naruto said, once again emphasizing his thoughts on the potion master's methods of teaching. "I'm not officially a member of the Gryffindor House; therefore you can't take points away from them due to my actions." At this, Snape rounded on Ginny, preparing to take points away from _her. _This angered Naruto further.

"That won't work either, Snape. You can only take points away from a student if they have done something against the rules, and Ginny hasn't." He said calmly.

In the Great Hall, two different magical hourglasses – one containing green gems and one containing red – began changing their contents, much to the surprise of anyone present.

Snape balled his fists. He looked ready to hit someone, and Naruto was actually worried he was going to strike Ginny for a moment. Thankfully, the bell for the end of class rung and everyone immediately gathered their things and sprinted for the door, causing enough chaos for Naruto and Ginny to sneak out with the crowd of haphazard students. Naruto heard Snape give a shout of rage before hurrying on.

When they were far enough away from the dungeons, Ginny approached Naruto, who stopped near the edge of the hall for her. The hall soon grew fairly empty, as it wasn't one of the most popular passageways, being so close to Snape's classroom.

"Thanks…" She mumbled, blushing and looking at the floor. She glanced up, noticed Naruto's slightly confused look, and decided to elaborate. "For standing up for me," She said with a small smile. "Not many people have the guts to stand up to Snape." In fact, she realized, Harry was one of the only people she knew of who did.

"Don't worry about it, I always stand up for my friends," He responded. "And I probably would've done it anyway. I don't like people like Snape, biased towards certain people and never helping anyone, only hurting them."

Ginny rushed forward – before her confidence failed her – and hugged him tightly, burying her face into his chest. Not entirely knowing how to react, Naruto wrapped his arms around her loosely.

"Some people don't think very highly of the Weasley family…" She started. Was she crying? "We're a pureblood family, but we aren't very wealthy and we don't have as much standing in society compared to other pureblood families, so some of them look down on us."

Naruto thought that sounded very much like the Clan system back in Konoha. He had always hated the system, how some people were viewed as better or worse than others purely because of their name or the clan they were born into.

"Am I really your friend?" She mumbled quietly into his chest. The friends she had made in her first year had soon drifted away once she started becoming consumed with the diary that had contained a piece of Voldemort's soul.

When it was revealed she had been attacked – and Harry consequently came and saved her – any friends that had remained left her for fear that something else would happen and they would get caught in the crossfire.

She had also learned that many of her 'friends' had only gotten close to her to make it easier to become friends with Harry – and hopefully gain fame or money. Ginny had become wary of any potential friend's motives and soon found it was a similar case for many prospective friends. The only friends she had maintained throughout her Hogwarts experience were Hermione Granger – who was already close to Harry, and so had no ulterior motive for becoming friends – and Luna Lovegood, who – while a very nice friend – wasn't the best person to share secrets and gossip with like normal friends did.

If this boy, who had quite literally appeared out of nowhere, could call her a friend in a matter of not even two days and stand up to the most despised professor in Hogwarts in her defense… it gave her a warm, fluttering feeling in her stomach. It was a good feeling, even if it was a little strange. Naruto's voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"Of course you're my friend, Ginny," He said quietly, tightening his hold on her slightly. "I may not have known you very long, but you were the only person that cared enough to see how I was doing, and you even invited me to sit next to you at breakfast today." He said, chuckling. "I can tell you're a kind-hearted and friendly person, you're just a little shy." She buried her face a little deeper into his chest at this and gripped him tighter.

After several more moments she seemed to realize what she was doing and released him quickly, blushing as red as her fiery hair, causing Naruto to chuckle quietly. Ginny pouted at him before smiling once again and – gathering herself – walking off to her next class.

/~{~(~)~}~\

The first two classes of the day were the most eventful ones by far. During third year Transfigurations Naruto learned that McGonagall was an excellent professor – helping her students and giving them tips and strategies like a teacher should. She was a little strict, which some people (Slytherins) complained about, but that was a good quality in a professor, it kept the kids in line.

Naruto thought the concept of Transfiguration was awesome. It was like the ability to henge something else, only it actually transformed into the desired object instead of just appearing different. The ways that could be used in a ninja career were uncountable.

Lunch was a lot better than breakfast in Naruto's opinion. Not as many people stared at him (although some still did) and he was able to recognize several people. He sat down next to Ginny and chatted with her, Harry, Hermione, and Ron about various things, asking questions about magic that they enthusiastically answered. Thankfully, nobody was asking questions about where he came from or what had happened – he figured the ordeals with the boy from Care of Magical Creatures (Who he had learned was named Draco) and Snape had caused enough gossip to keep them away from those subjects for at least a day or two, which was perfectly fine.

Naruto (After ample convincing from Ginny and Ron) tore himself away from his ramen long enough to try several different foods that Hogwarts offered, mostly the desserts. The Pumpkin Pastries and Treacle Tart were good, he had to admit, but it was still nothing compared to ramen.

Dumbledore called him over once lunch was over and told him that they'd meet in his office the next night to see if Naruto could use magic or if Dumbledore could use chakra, which Naruto agreed to.

Naruto took the opportunity to ask if he could stay with the Gryffindors at nights. Dumbledore merely raised his eyebrows and asked if he was sure. It was, after all, a rather fast decision. Naruto explained that there was no way he was going to be in Slytherin – for various reasons – and that he already had a few friends in Gryffindor. Dumbledore nodded his head sagely and merely said, "I'll have a separate room prepared for you."

Naruto thanked him and headed off to second year Charms. Naruto almost thought Professor Flitwick was a student until class started and he was standing in the front teaching! They were going to start with a revision of what they had learned last year – like many of the classes on the first day did. Professor Flitwick had the students cast _Wingardium Leviosa_ – a spell that caused things to levitate –and _Lumos_ – which created light at the end of the casters wand – as well as _Incendio_, a spell that set things alight. Naruto just _had_ to learn how to use magic now, if he (And by extension his clones) could do all that, there was no way he'd lose another battle!

When Charms was over, Naruto made his way to third year Defense Against the Dark Arts – or as the student body had dubbed it, DADA. When he entered, Professor Lupin almost immediately pulled him aside, looking slightly concerned.

"Are you sure it's alright for you to be walking around so soon?" He nearly whispered. "When I saw you yesterday you had a six-inch hole in your chest! How can you be walking around at all?" He questioned.

"I've got amazing regenerative powers," Naruto said with a nonchalant shrug. "Just ask Pomfrey or Dumbledore, they cleared me to leave, but they have no idea why I heal so fast."

Lupin looked at him suspiciously.

"But _you _know exactly why, don't you?" It was more of a statement that a question.

"Yes," Naruto said quietly. "I do. But I'm not going to tell you, or anyone. It's pretty personal." He said firmly.

"Hey, I get it," Lupin said, holding up his hands. "Everyone has their secrets – even me. Just make sure you don't get anyone hurt," He said cryptically.

As their discussion ended, Naruto realized that the room was dead silent and that nearly everyone had been listening to their conversation.

Naruto quietly went to stand in the back of the room as Lupin cleared his throat and directed the class's attention back to him.

The class was fairly boring – mostly a rough run-down of what they'd be doing over the school year. Though Lupin did mention something fairly interesting about halfway through. He said they'd be dealing with something called a Boggart the next class – or perhaps the one after.

A Boggart, as Lupin put it bluntly, turned into your worst fears. The closest person to whatever was being used to contain it was usually the victim. Apparently, few – if any – people had ever seen what a Boggart actually looked like, and it hadn't been documented in anything as of yet. They were, of course, going to be learning the counter for a Boggart at the same time, so he encouraged students to study the _Ridiculous_ spell before their next class.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Naruto had an hour or two until dinner, so he explored the castle. After over half an hour – and only searching a fraction of the castle – Naruto decided to speed things up a little.

Naruto found an abandoned classroom (He noticed there were a _lot _of unused classrooms) and made just over a dozen clones. He had them all henge into fairly unremarkable and easy to forget students of various houses and years and sent them off to explore the school, with orders to find a safe place to dispel if they thought they were going to be found out or – for any reason – attacked.

As he made his way down to dinner another half hour later he knew much more of the school than he had only an hour before. His clones had even found several secret passages hidden throughout the halls, behind tapestries, and even on the ceilings.

He once again sat with Ginny and the golden trio – though Hermione seemed much colder towards him now. Ginny seemed to be a little less friendly with her, so he just figured they'd argued over something.

Naruto tried several more foods found at Hogwarts, but still didn't find anything comparable to ramen.

When dinner was almost done with, Dumbledore once again called Naruto over to talk. Naruto complied and strolled over, just catching the mumbles from the student body as he once again made his way to the head table. Dumbledore gave him a grandfatherly smile as he approached, reminding Naruto greatly of the Sandaime Hokage.

"I have had a room set up for you in the Gryffindor Common Room. It's next to the staircase leading to the boys' dormitories, behind the picture. The password is 'Konohagakure', as I'm fairly certain nobody knows how the name relates to you." Dumbledore said.

"But how will I know what picture it is? You told me they there are dozens of pictures in every common room!" Naruto replied.

Dumbledore chuckled, a twinkle in his eyes once again. "You'll know which one, I'm certain of it." He said with a smile. With that, he sent Naruto back to the Gryffindor table and rose to give his 'end of the first school day' speech, informing students of any last minute rules or additions to Filch's list of banned items.

The students began filing out of the Great Hall towards their respective Common Rooms, and Naruto followed Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny towards the Gryffindor Commons, many students passing them as Naruto conversed with the four (Mostly Ginny and Ron, really) about the wonders of magic. As they reached the seventh floor of the school, the group stopped and Hermione turned and gave him an expectant look.

"What?" He said, looking from Hermione, to Ron, to Harry, then to Ginny, and back again. He began checking his clothes – just to make sure he hadn't gotten any food on him during dinner – when Hermione spoke up.

"Each of the Common Rooms has a secret entrance and a password, so you'll have to leave before we can go in," She said, exasperated.

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck once again.

"Oh, hehe…" He started. "I forgot to tell you I'll be staying with the Gryffindors from now on, didn't I? Guess it kind of slipped my mind." He said with a laugh.

Ginny's eyes lit up like it was Christmas.

"Really? You're staying in the Gryffindor Common Room?"

At Naruto's confirming nod she squealed slightly and hugged Naruto tightly. Hermione leveled an intense glare at Naruto, who responded with a raised eyebrow as Ginny let go of him.

"You don't really expect me to believe that, do you?" She said with narrowed eyes.

"Dumbledore gave me my own room, he said it was next to the staircase leading to the boys dormitories." He said in his defense.

Hermione looked ready to argue, and was opening her mouth to do so when Ginny spoke up first.

"Come on, Hermione, just give him a chance! You can't go on thinking he's an evil wizard forever, can you? He even stood up to Snape for me!" She argued before Hermione had the chance.

"Seriously, Mione', just give him a chance." Ron decided to add his piece to the discussion.

Hermione just glared at him and Naruto, turning to Harry, who just shrugged with a nervous look.

"I'm not taking sides, but he seems like a nice guy from what Ginny's told us. Anyone who gives Snape a hard time is a pretty stand-up guy in my book." He said.

Hermione just sighed. "Fine," She said. "I'll give him a chance." She turned to Naruto. "Just make sure you don't try anything funny." She warned, before turning to a portrait of a rather Fat Lady and muttering 'Wattlebird'.

The portrait swung open, muttering about ungrateful kids keeping her waiting over some petty argument, (Dumbledore had told Naruto about the moving pictures of the wizarding world) and Hermione climbed through a circular hole that was hidden behind the portrait, soon followed by Ron, Harry, Ginny, and lastly Naruto.

The portrait swung shut behind them and Naruto had to say the common room was a lot better than he had expected it to be. There were extremely squashy and comfortable looking armchairs all around the circular room, as well as a few couches and a large fireplace that adorned one wall. Two large windows looked out over the school grounds and two staircases lead off of each end of the room towards what Naruto assumed to be the boy's and girl's dormitories.

Ginny showed him which one lead to the boy's and Naruto looked around for a clue as to which painting was the one leading to his room, the other four – as well as several occupants of the room – following out of curiosity. After almost a full minute of searching excruciatingly for clues, Naruto resisted the urge to bang his forehead into the wall repeatedly, muttering to himself about smart-ass headmasters much to Hermione's ire.

About three feet to the right of the staircase was a fairly large painting, about as tall as Naruto himself. However, that wasn't what gave it away as the entrance to Naruto's room.

The painting was that of a stereotypical ninja, dressed in all black, complete with a facemask, a kunai, shuriken, the works. Naruto nearly slapped himself. _How_ had he not noticed that?

The ninja seemed amused.

"So you finally managed to figure it out, huh? Took you long enough…" He muttered.

"Hey!" Naruto nearly shouted at the painting comically. "I wasn't expecting it to be _that_ obvious!" He said, getting several curious looks from the bystanders.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, you know the password, right?" The ninja replied coolly. Naruto was vaguely reminded of Kakashi-sensei.

"Yeah, I just don't want to say it in front of a crowd," He said, gesturing with his head to the crowd of just over a dozen students behind him, who tried to look like they were minding their own business. The ninja chuckled.

"I hear ya…" The ninja agreed. "You gonna turn in now or wait an hour or two?"

Naruto suddenly realized how tired he was. Maybe it was the events of the day (namely the hippogriffs and the interaction with Snape) or maybe he was still fatigued from his painful arrival at Hogwarts, but he felt like some sleep was in order.

"I think I'll go to bed now…" He trailed off. He turned and said goodnight to Ginny and the golden trio, who bidded him a good night, and the onlookers returned to their own business, the golden trio plus one heading to their respective rooms for a little extra rest themselves.

Naruto climbed through the hole behind the portrait, just barely having to duck his head to avoid injury, and emerged in a fair sized room containing a four-poster bed that was fairly large for one person, a desk with a chair, and a couch for whatever reason. Maybe Dumbledore was expecting him to have company? Naruto didn't give it any more thought. After taking in his surroundings for all of a minute and dressing himself in his night-wear, he threw himself onto his extremely comfy-looking bed, pulled the covers up and drifted off to sleep.

/~{~(~)~}~\

_**Original Post ~ 2/24/2012 ~ 7,783 words**_

_**Edited Post ~ 4/29/2012 ~ 7,840 words**_

~ A/N: Voila! The second chapter. Hopefully it meets everyone's expectations :P A few parts were a little rushed or forced so I hope it turned out well. A quick notice: I usually only write when I'm in the mood, so updates will be hard to predict. They may be a few days, a few weeks, or months depending on the situation, as real-life _does_ come first (lol),so just bear with me here ^_^


	3. Making Friends?

_**~The Effects of a Boggart~**_

~ A Naruto and Harry Potter Fanfiction

**~ A/N:** Sorry about the long wait, but I haven't had much of a chance to write anything lately. I went to Chicago for a week for the Business Professionals of America National Competitions and got 20th out of 48 people in the Java Programming event, so yay! I also placed 21st out of over 400 people :D

Anyway, the hotel didn't have Wi-Fi and I only had a laptop for a few hours, so I couldn't really type anything =/

This chapter was written in short 'bursts' I guess you could say, so if it seems inconsistent, or the mood changes abruptly, that may be the cause. I did my best to keep it consistent throughout, but I hope it turned out okay. Also, I'm thinking of adding a Naruto/Hermione pairing – and perhaps another pairing or two – to the story as well, as you may be able to tell by this chapter :P I love fluff... even if I may not be very good at it.

Also, Naruto is not as much of an idiot as he appeared in canon in my fic. He's not a superpowered god that knows everything, but he's not a totally ignorant imbecile.

_I will not bow,  
>I will not break,<br>I will shut the world away…  
>I will not fall,<br>I will not fade,  
>I will take your breath away…<em>

_Breaking Benjamin ~ I Will Not Bow_

**~Chapter 3~**

Naruto woke up much earlier than he would've liked. Breakfast started _way _too early in this place! He debated between missing breakfast and getting another hour or two of sleep, but eventually the desire for ramen won out, and he managed to drag himself out of bed long enough to stumble into the bathroom that was joined to his bedroom by means of an intricate door. Dumbledore had really gone all out – he had his own private (At least he hoped it was private) bedroom and even a bathroom complete with a shower.

He turned on the shower and just stood under the hot water for almost a minute before beginning his morning rituals. He threw on an outfit almost exactly like the one he had worn the previous day and climbed through the portrait-hole leading to the Gryffindor Common Room, yawning.

As he approached the back of the painting he heard several ongoing conversations, but one seemed both quieter and more intense. They must have been near the portrait, because their voices carried through it and down the portrait-hole.

"…Just saying we don't know who he is, where he came from, or what he's really _like_, Ginny! He could be one of You-Know-Who's followers for all we know!" A hushed voice said – presumably to Ginny. Naruto got a sinking feeling it was Hermione.

"You can't keep thinking he's an evil wizard, Hermione!" Ginny replied stubbornly. "He looked genuinely happy to see me yesterday – several times, in fact – and he stood up to Snape for me! He doesn't even know any magic!"

"Well maybe he's just trying to get close to you! After what happened last year, you _know _that there are some people who still think you're dark, or a danger to the school and want to get rid of you. You don't know what his _motives_ are for getting close to you. And I know he's hiding something." Hermione replied heatedly. "I heard him in Care of Magical Creatures yesterday, he knows magic, he's just not telling anyone."

It sounded like they were arguing about him. That must have been what had caused the slight rift between them the previous day during and after dinner.

"You said you were going to give him a chance, Hermione! Everyone has their secrets, even you and me, so you need to let him have his own," Ginny argued.

She was arguing in his defense. Rarely anyone ever did that, primarily because not many people were on his side. The only people who _had _defended him were Iruka-sensei, the Sandaime Hokage, the Ichiraku's, and perhaps Kakashi-sensei to a lesser extent.

Naruto chose this point to swing the portrait open, causing Hermione to stop preparing her counter-argument and Ginny to stop talking.

Naruto stepped out of the portrait-hole, allowing it to swing shut behind him, and gave both Hermione and Ginny pointed looks. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him and Ginny gave him a nervous smile.

"It's rude to talk about people behind their backs," He said somewhat playfully. Hermione just made a 'Hmph!' noise and crossed her arms, while Ginny laughed nervously. "Maybe you shouldn't stand next to the entrance to my bedroom the next time you talk about me." He said in the same playful manner. Ginny rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly – maybe Naruto was rubbing off on her? Hermione gave him an unamused look.

"Anyway," He began. "I'm hungry, so how about we get some breakfast?" He questioned. Ginny seemed relieved that he hadn't grilled her about their heated quarrel – as did Hermione to a certain extent, though she looked like she wanted to continue their discussion.

"Actually, we usually wait for Harry and Ron to come down before heading to breakfast." She said with a note of finality.

"I'll go down with you!" Ginny piped up, sounding hopeful. Hermione gave her a somewhat shocked look, almost like she had been betrayed. Naruto grinned at Ginny and nodded, and she was halfway through the portrait-hole leading out of the Common Room before Naruto had even started moving.

"I still don't trust you." Hermione's voice dampened his mood as he made to follow Ginny. He stopped abruptly, still facing the exit. The din of the surrounding conversations only seemed to increase the tension.

"I know," He said after a moment of silence. "Where I come from, a lot of people don't trust me, or really like me at all. Most of the people in my home village can't even stand the sight of me, really. All because of things completely out of my control." He said, eliciting furrowed brows from Hermione. Naruto had gathered over the past few days that that meant she was thinking. "Point is, I'm used to people hating me. One more won't really make much of a difference, though you _are_ one of the only people I know here, so I'd rather you didn't." He said solemnly before continuing out of the Common Room, leaving Hermione to think over what he had said while she waited for Harry and Ron.

Ginny was waiting for him outside of the Common Room. They grinned at each other and began walking down to the Great Hall.

"What took so long?" She asked him.

"Just… talking with Hermione." Naruto said with a small smile. Ginny immediately adopted a worried look.

"She didn't… attack you or anything like that, did she?" She asked with slightly wider eyes.

"What? No, no, nothing like that!" He said with a small laugh. "Though, I was kind of expecting it for a few seconds. She just told me outright what she thought of me." He said nonchalantly. She looked like she was going to ask questions, but stopped herself, which Naruto was grateful for.

They ate breakfast for several minutes – Naruto shoveling down ramen – before Harry, Hermione, and Ron strolled through the doors of the Great Hall. Hermione sent Naruto a look that said 'We're going to have a talk later'. Though Naruto supposed it was better than the glares she had been sending him previously, he wasn't looking forward to it.

The day wasn't as interesting or eventful as the previous day, though it wasn't dull either. Naruto sat in on several more classes, mainly Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. He knew no one in any of the classes though, so he focused more on absorbing what the professors said, gaining a small understanding of whatever their lesson was about – though he did meet a Ravenclaw second year in Charms named Luna Lovegood who claimed to be a friend of Ginny's. She was an oddball, that much was certain, but she had an aura of innocence about her that made it hard not to like her. Others, however, didn't seem to think so. He heard many people call her 'Loony Lovegood', several of them being from the same house as her, and that frustrated Naruto a little. What had happened to camaraderie between housemates?

What had really angered Naruto though was when Luna had told him it was fine, and that she was used to it. She talked about it like it was an everyday occurrence – which from the looks of it, it probably was. And if it was, it was bound to go farther eventually – that was, if it already hadn't. It would turn into outright bullying, then perhaps abuse. Naruto knew that all too well. He resolved to do something about it, telling Luna that it in fact _wasn't_ fine and that it would just get worse. A somewhat surprised look (or at least more surprised than she already looked) adorned her face at that, and she quietly thanked him for his concern before the bell rang and everyone rushed out of the classroom, Luna getting pulled along with the crowd.

At lunch, Naruto once again sat with the only four people he really knew at the school and chatted with them, confirming that Luna was indeed a friend of Ginny's. When he asked, she agreed that the way Luna was treated was a problem, but said that she didn't have the power to do anything about it, and she was afraid of just making it worse by trying and failing to help.

The rest of the day was uneventful, though he was able to wrap his mind around the concepts of some of the spells in Transfiguration and DADA, even if they were just reviews of first and second year spells. He couldn't wait to find out if he could perform magic!

After dinner, where Naruto had chatted with Ginny and the golden trio again, Naruto made his way with Dumbledore to his office, the elderly wizard leading him through the twisting halls of the old castle. Naruto looked at Dumbledore like he was senile when he stopped in front of a stone gargoyle and said "Here we are."

Dumbledore just chuckled.

"Licorice." He said. At first nothing happened and Naruto began to doubt the man's sanity, but to Naruto's immense surprise the gargoyle moved aside – actually _moved_ aside – and revealed a staircase heading up. He looked at Dumbledore and noticed a twinkle in his eyes. Whenever he got that twinkle in his eyes, Dumbledore's mischievous side showed. Naruto vowed to pull a prank on him at some point.

They started heading up the staircase, and it took Naruto several seconds to realize the staircase was moving _for_ them. It carried them up until they reached a door, which Dumbledore opened to reveal an office full of all kinds of various oddities and objects, some on display on his desk, some in display cases, some on bookshelves… Naruto wouldn't be surprised if they were on the ceiling too. He glanced upwards just in case.

It was then that he noticed another presence in the room. Madame Pomfrey sat in a chair next to Dumbledore's desk, gazing at him with a calculating look.

After a moment, Naruto spoke up. "So… Am I going to learn magic now?" He questioned in anticipation.

"This meeting isn't so much about learning magic, it's about finding out if you have the _capability_ to learn and perform magic." Dumbledore said sagely.

Naruto nodded. That made sense. "No offense, but why is Madame Pomfrey here?" He said, glancing at the matron with a bewildered look.

"We – and by that I mean Poppy and I – have managed to theorize that Poppy's diagnostic and healing spells – and by extension most spells in general – do not have as much of an effect on you because they affect the target's magical core and the magical energy in their bodies, which all people in this world have, even Muggles – whose cores are so undeveloped they cannot perform the simplest of magics, even if it flows through them. You, however, contain Chakra, not the magical energy wizards and witches do, so spells do not have as much of an effect on you." He said in explanation.

Naruto's look became down cast. If he didn't have the same energy as them, then how could he perform magic?

"Don't lose hope, there is still a chance – a very firm one, I believe," Dumbledore said. "The fact that spells even affect you at all reveals that your Chakra does in fact react to magic. Therefore, you should be able to learn magic, though it may be a little harder than it is for most wizards and witches."

At this Naruto's eyes brightened.

"So I can still learn magic?" He asked hopefully. When Dumbledore nodded he cheered loudly, eliciting a chuckle from Dumbledore and a smile from Pomfrey.

"I am going to be teaching you a simple spell to see how easy or hard it is for you to learn. After that is complete, we'll move on to seeing if I can use Chakra." Dumbledore told Naruto, who nodded his understanding.

"The spell I'm going to teach you will be _Wingardium Leviosa_, a first year spell and usually the first spell students at Hogwarts are taught."

Naruto nodded. Dumbledore had him recite the incantation a few times, then gave an example of the correct 'wand movement' and a demonstration of the spell, along with an explanation of what the spell did, allowing Naruto to get an idea of which hand seals to use to mold his chakra.

After fifteen minutes of trying to make a feather levitate with Dumbledore and Pomfrey patiently waiting, he saw one end flick up just slightly. Not entirely sure if it was due to his efforts or a draft (Maybe he was breathing too heavily?) he tried once again. The same end moved upwards about an inch this time. One more try and the entire feather actually lifted off of the headmaster's desk about two inches. Naruto cheered and Dumbledore gave a grandfatherly smile. Naruto tried once again, and it lifted several inches off of the desk and hovered there for a few seconds before falling back to the desk.

"How many things can you levitate at the same time?" He asked the elderly wizard excitedly.

"Students usually only have enough concentration to levitate one thing, but some older students and many adults can levitate several objects, though the heavier they are, the harder it is." Dumbledore said, giving Naruto a curious look.

Naruto grinned, before making a hand sign and calling out 'Kage Bunshin!'. When the puff of smoke was once again scourgified by Dumbledore, three Naruto's were standing in the original's place. All three picked a fairly light object on Dumbledore's desk – the feather, a parchment, an old fashioned writing quill – and performed the spell. To Pomfrey's surprise and Dumbledore's amusement, all three objects levitated an inch or two off of the desk before falling back down. Naruto laughed.

"That is _so_ awesome!"

Dumbledore and Pomfrey shared a look. Naruto's clones could perform magic. The applications that had in the wizarding world were endless. With those clones, the boy could easily become one of the most powerful wizards in the known world. The ability to create a small army of oneself in a matter of seconds that could all perform as well as the original could have great effects in almost any battle. Once Naruto learned offensive spells, even just stunners or binding spells, he could defeat many wizards, even some aurors.

If he learned anything even more advanced… Well, he could become the most powerful wizard alive, even greater than Dumbledore… or Voldemort.

Dumbledore gave Naruto a grandfatherly smile. "You are certainly a remarkable boy, Naruto." He said, chuckling. Naruto gave him a large grin.

"Now, you know the basics of Chakra, yes?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well…" Naruto began with a nervous laugh. "There are a few things I never learned in the Ninja Academy…" He finished. Dumbledore and Pomfrey both raised their eyebrows in question.

"Well, the instructors didn't like me very much…" He gazed at the ground, his expression somber. "I rarely stayed in class for an entire week, I almost always got kicked out for at least a day for some reason or another." He explained. Dumbledore looked curious, while Pomfrey looked a little miffed.

"But I can still show you how to gather Chakra and perform jutsu!" He said quickly. Thankfully, this exclamation took their minds off of his previous statements, though Dumbledore filed it away for later thought.

Naruto spent the next hour to an hour and a half showing Dumbledore – and by extension Madame Pomfrey – how to gather Chakra, drawing on the physical and mental aspects of one's existence to create energy. To Naruto's surprise, neither Madame Pomfrey nor Dumbledore – who was supposed to be an extremely powerful wizard – were able to use much Chakra, their reserves were probably no bigger than an academy student's, if even that. In fact, Pomfrey had more than Dumbledore, and that confounded Naruto. When he informed them of this, Pomfrey looked beyond shocked and Dumbledore immediately adopted a thoughtful look.

Naruto proceeded to get them back on track and explained the regular Bunshin to them as best he could. He told them it required a minuscule amount of Chakra, and that almost any amount would give _some_ kind of result, so it was the perfect test to see if they could in fact use their relatively small reserves of Chakra.

He demonstrated the hand signs required for the jutsu until they had them down, doing his best to explain how each hand sign molded the Chakra into certain shapes, and had them try the jutsu several times, going through them step-by-step to see if they were doing anything wrong. He wasn't going to have them try it too many times, because they would likely get tired easily with their small reserves. It looked pretty bleak for a little while, but on the fourth try, Dumbledore was able to get some results. The three occupants of Dumbledore's office were able to discern a blur in the air next to Dumbledore, roughly the width and height of the elderly wizard himself.

Naruto grinned at Dumbledore and congratulated him on his – if slight – success, while the wizard responded with a weary yet immensely satisfied smile. Pomfrey congratulated him as well, though she looked a little jealous. After a few more tries by Pomfrey – who achieved no results – the two wizards were too exhausted to continue, and the three occupants of the office decided it was time to call it a night. Naruto made the two promise to help each other train periodically – which caused them to smile warmly at him – before leaving the office for the night, feeling ecstatic that he would be able to learn the magic that was taught at the school.

At that thought, Naruto decided that since he still wasn't going to attend the first year classes (he may be able to learn, but that didn't mean he was willing to sit through boring introductory courses) he would go to the library and read up on the first years' curriculum. After all, reading the books would take less time than sitting through the classes.

Naruto quietly made his way to the library, moving along the ceiling and using the shadows to conceal himself from the occasional passer-by. There weren't many students wandering the halls, but there were some – usually couples – that snuck through the halls, likely making their way to their common rooms.

Naruto snuck into the library, giving the librarian (who looked more like she was a security guard) a wide girth. He had heard from the others about how stingy the librarian was about… well, everything in the library, apparently. The scowl on her face as she looked over several books that had been returned that night wasn't a very pleasant one, and Naruto didn't doubt that their claims held some truth when she started mumbling about 'troublesome kids ruining her books'.

At this, Naruto was reminded of the lazy, yet skilled, comrade that he had performed several missions with back in Konoha, always muttering about how 'troublesome' things were. What was happening back in Konoha, anyway? He hadn't really thought about it much, the stress of getting used to a different world entirely was burdening, and he had been preoccupied with all of the different things about this world – the magic, the muggle technology described by Harry and Hermione (some of which he realized they had in Konoha, which was weird). Were they looking for him? Tsunade, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, Sakura, the others in the rookie nine… _Someone_ must be looking for him, right? Then again, they might not be able to spare any manpower on a mere missing genin with the recent invasion from Orochimaru, his Oto followers, and the Suna shinobi.

Thoughts of his home darkened Naruto's mood. He did his best to put them out of his head for now, but the slightly depressing thoughts still lingered in the recesses of his mind.

He made his way to the first year area and found the section for textbooks. Thankfully, it was a ways away from the librarian, so he didn't have to worry as much about making a little noise. Taking a copy of _"The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)"_off the bookshelf, he found a spot at a desk along the wall and quietly started to read the text, skimming over most of it until it got to theories and how to perform spells.

As he started reading in more detail, he created a couple Kage Bunshin as quietly as he could, getting a faint 'pop' and a small puff of smoke in return. He glanced around and listened to see if the librarian was rushing over to investigate the slightly louder than comfortable noise, but relaxed after several moments of silence. He sent the Bunshin to pick several more first year textbooks off of the shelf for the original Naruto to read later.

After fifteen minutes of reading, Naruto was almost a quarter of the way through the textbook – skimming over the historical parts, of course – and dispelled the Bunshin that were now seated in various chairs around him.

When Naruto suddenly knew information from two more first year textbooks he blinked. What had just happened? He realized that he _knew_ what had happened because he could remember going up to the shelf and taking several more books off of it, then reading them out of curiosity when he got bored.

It took Naruto almost a minute to realize that he had received the influx of information from his Kage Bunshin that he had sent out while he read in the corner of the library. He created two more to test his new theory out and sent them off to do something where he couldn't see them. After a minute or two, he dispelled them and received memories of playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with himself.

Naruto's eyes widened as he realized what he could accomplish with this new information. He still remembered what the Bunshin had read earlier, so it wasn't just a temporary thing – at least he hoped it wasn't – and he even had some memories of Bunshin from his adventures in Konoha. He created at least a dozen Kage Bunshin – one by one to make sure the faint pop and the smoke would go unnoticed by the librarian – and sent them off to find and come back with the rest of the first year books, as well as some second year books. He had them read whatever book they had obtained, continuing to read his own textbook, but he could barely concentrate anymore, he was too excited to find out if his idea would work. After another fifteen minutes he dispelled half of them, receiving information from more than a dozen textbooks as a result. Naruto nearly cheered – and would've if it hadn't been for the librarian. Some of the info he had gotten didn't make sense, as he hadn't read whatever prerequisites were needed, but that could be dealt with later.

His clones had read _"A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration"_, _"The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection"_, _"Magical Drafts and Potions"_, and even _"A History of Magic"_ among several other more advanced books. He was fairly sure that he had learned enough to have a solid grasp on several of the concepts he had learned earlier in the day. After another half an hour of reading, Naruto decided it was getting late and it was time to head back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

He dispelled his Bunshin – quietly of course, to make sure the librarian wouldn't notice – and received another welcomed influx of information from various books before sneaking out of the library the same way he snuck in.

He made his way to the seventh floor, dropping down from the ceiling when he reached the Fat Lady and earning a scolding from her for "scaring the daylights out of unsuspecting portraits". He climbed through the portrait hole and into the common room, which a quick scan revealed was deserted, as it was past midnight.

He went over to the portrait of a ninja (who opened without a word about a password) and was about to climb into the portrait-hole when he noticed movement on one of the rather comfy couches to his left.

"Where do you think _you're_ going?"

Hermione. Naruto mentally groaned. How had he missed her when he scanned the room? He did _not_ want to have a 'chat' right now.

Hermione stood up from the couch – she must have been sleeping, because her bushy hair was bushier than usual and several blankets fell off of her figure – and crossed her arms over her chest, giving Naruto an expectant look.

"You and I need to talk."

Oh, joy. Naruto sighed.

"About what?" He said reluctantly.

"I think you know." She said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah… I know…" He said somberly. "You've been suspicious of me ever since I arrived here. You keep saying I could be a dark wizard, or one of Voldemort's followers."

Hermione gave him a surprised look. "How do you know about Vol – You-Know-Who?" She said quickly.

"Relax, relax," Naruto said, holding his hands up. "Dumbledore told me who Voldemort was when he explained the wizarding world to me. I'm not one of his followers, I can assure you of that. He reminds me too much of someone from my home…" He trailed off. He wasn't sure who was worse – Orochimaru or Voldemort.

She gave him a skeptical look, but didn't say anything about it.

"That's one of the reasons I don't trust you," She started. "You never say anything about your home, or where you come from, or who you really are."

"So that only leaves the option that I'm a dark wizard?" Naruto questioned with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well if a boy my age appears in the middle of one of the most prestigious magical schools in the world in a giant ball of lightning and fire, I'm not going to accept anything but a complete and total explanation of who he is and where he came from. The way you've been acting gives me _reason_ to be suspicious. You're good – _very_ good – at steering the conversation away from yourself." She replied heatedly.

Now that Naruto thought about it… She was pretty much right. He hadn't really given her a _reason_ to trust him. Sure, he had helped Ginny out and was pretty friendly (or at least civil) to most of the students, but those were both basic infiltration tactics: Be friendly and helpful and less people will be suspicious of you, it was fairly simple.

"Well, okay, you've got me there," He started, getting a satisfied look from Hermione. "I'd be pretty suspicious too if someone just _appeared_ in a spectacular ball of energy in the middle of the academy back home. I can give you my word that I wish no harm upon anyone here at Hogwarts," He said, crossing his hand over his heart for good measure. "Well… except, possibly, for Draco Malfoy. I pretty much think he's an asshole at the moment, considering how he's acted since I got here." He added, making Hermione reprimand him quickly for his language, telling him 'not to joke about such things'.

"So then why do you keep steering the conversation away from yourself when the subject of who you really are or where you come from is brought up?" She questioned curiously. He seemed to be gaining her trust – if only bit by bit.

"Who I am and where I come from…" He trailed off, looking towards the ceiling. Should he tell her about his past? He had told Dumbledore and Pomfrey, but (unless they had told someone else, which he didn't think they had) they were the only two who knew. He was actually considering telling Ginny about his past – toned down, as he didn't want to scare her or anything – but had been debating the idea with himself for a little while. Was it safe to tell her?

"The story of my life is not a very pleasant one… I can guarantee you that much. As I said before, most of the people in my village can't stand me, and some… some even want my death," He said solemnly. He lowered his gaze from the ceiling and looked her right in the eyes. What Hermione saw surprised her, to say the least. His eyes were no longer the exuberant, jovial, bright cerulean eyes she had seen him displaying previously. They weren't lifeless, but they seemed… _tired_ of everything, of life. They were the eyes of someone who had taken so much shit in their life they didn't really care anymore. It scared her a little.

"The only two I've actually told the story of my life to are Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey, and I didn't even tell _them_ everything" He said, getting her attention. What had his life been like?

"I… I want to know," She started hesitantly. "I _have_ to know."

Naruto sighed. "It's not going to be pleasant, you know that, right?"

"I need to know. I don't _want_ to be distrustful of you but it's hard when I know almost nothing about you. I want to be your friend, I really do, but I can't do that until I know who you really are." She said. She seemed sincere about it too. Naruto made an impulse decision.

"Okay… I'll tell you my story," He started, getting a slightly hopeful look from Hermione. "But you'll have to come into my room first, the common room is a little too… public." He said, moving towards the portrait that swung open once again before crawling through, Hermione right behind him.

As they emerged from the portrait-hole into Naruto's bedroom, Naruto turned to Hermione, who was looking around in awe.

"Why is your bed bigger than the beds in the dorm rooms? And you have your own bathroom, too!" She seemed somewhat angered by his accommodations and looked towards him for answers. He just shrugged and she pouted a little before they turned serious once again.

"You know, I'm surprised you actually followed me in here," Naruto started. "I would've thought you'd prefer to stay in a public place, considering that you don't trust me yet."

"Well, it's not like you can just kill me or something like that," She said, gaining Naruto's interest. "People would wonder what had happened to me when I stopped showing up in classes or at the library." She said confidently.

"There are many more things that someone could do, some of them are even worse than death…" He said cryptically. It sounded like he was speaking from experience, but that couldn't be right, could it? "Anyway, you wanted to hear my story, right?" He questioned, earning a nod from Hermione. Naruto walked over to the couch and plopped himself down onto it, Hermione following a little more gracefully.

"Well, the first thing you need to know… is that I'm not really from this world," He started, getting a look from Hermione. Before she could say anything, he continued. "I'm not sure if they're different dimensions, different times, or what, but the world I come from and this world are both very different and kind of similar as well." Hermione adopted a surprised – yet still skeptical – look at that.

"Where I come from, there is no such thing as magic – not the kind that you use here, anyway. There are no wizards and witches, no Ministry of Magic, nothing like that," Hermione's eyebrows furrowed. "I come from the village of Konohagakure, 'The Village Hidden in the Leaves', lead by the Hokage. The military component of the village – and almost every other village in my world – is composed of Shinobi. The Hokage is the strongest of these Shinobi." He explained.

"What are 'Shinobi'?" She asked curiously.

"Well, Shinobi is the general term for a Ninja, though female Shinobi are called Kunoichi."

"Ninjas?" She asked incredulously. Naruto chuckled a little.

"Yeah, Ninjas are the best way to describe us. Though we don't _always_ use stealth and assassinate people: we do other things too. Anyway, each ninja has an arsenal of 'Jutsu' that they can perform as long as they have enough energy and have learned how to perform it correctly. It's kind of like the spells wizards and witches can perform, though we don't need wands. These 'Jutsu' are divided into several categories – much like magic. The energy that makes these Jutsu work is called Chakra, and is composed of both the spiritual and physical aspects of one's being." He said in explanation. Hermione gave him another skeptical look.

"Need proof?" Naruto questioned. Hermione gave a nod, eliciting a sigh from Naruto. "Okay, okay, just don't freak out _too_ much." He said ,smirking and getting a half-hearted glare from Hermione.

Naruto made a few hand signs before there was a loud pop and he was engulfed in a puff of smoke, causing Hermione to jump and squeal quietly. She heard a chuckle come from the dissipating cloud, but it didn't sound like Naruto at _all_. In fact, it sounded extremely familiar…

The smoke cleared and before Hermione was… well, Hermione. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head while her doppelganger smirked and chuckled, before speaking.

"Believe me now? This is the 'Henge'. It's a transformation technique that allows me to take the form of… well, anything I can imagine, really." Her doppelganger – now revealed to be Naruto – said. There was another puff of smoke and Hermione jumped again – though she didn't squeal, she was proud to say – before the regular blond-haired Naruto was sitting in front of her once again with a mischievous smile on his face.

"What?" She said quickly. "You surprised me, that's all!" She said insistently. He just kept smiling at her, causing her to pout a little. He just chuckled again.

"So…" She began after a moment of silence. "You can perform these 'Jutsu', so that means you're a ninja, right?" Naruto nodded slowly in confirmation. She was getting at something, he just didn't know what it was. "So… that means that you're part of Konohagakure's military force?" She asked.

"Well… yeah, I guess," Naruto started, getting an incredulous look from Hermione.

"How old are you?" She asked insistently.

"Well…" He started hesitantly. She was probably going to go off on a mad rampage, judging by her look. "I'm thirteen right now." He said sheepishly.

"You're _thirteen_ and you're in the military?" She nearly shouted. It took Naruto nearly a minute to calm her down, she was shouting about how wrong it was that people could place thirteen year-olds in the military. He eventually got her to calm down by telling her it was his _choice_ to become a Shinobi. She stared at him like had grown a second head.

"You chose to become a Shinobi at thirteen?"

"Well, not really, the decision came around age seven or eight. We need to go to the Shinobi academy for a few years, so we make the decision earlier…" He said. He was about to continue, but she looked like she was going to have a seizure. "You need to understand that being a Shinobi is a great honor for people in the village. Shinobi are the only defense against invasion and are considered the protectors and guardians of the village and its inhabitants. I didn't really have many other job opportunities, either. You have to remember that not many people in the village liked me very much. The only reason the academy even took me in was because the Hokage forced them to. He was one of the few people in the village that actually liked me and talked to me, but he was always busy. Being the leader of one of the largest villages in the world leaves you with little free time." He said quietly.

"Why were you disliked in your village, anyway? You said it was because of something completely out of your control." She questioned innocently. Naruto sighed. It was a heavy, world-weary sigh.

"That's where we begin my story…" Naruto began. "Thirteen years ago – where I'm from, at least – a massive demon called the Kyūbi attacked Konoha. The Kyūbi is one of the legendary Bijū, the ninth and final demon in a series of tailed-beasts, each having one more tail than the last, and each containing far greater strength. I'm not sure _why_ the Kyūbi attacked Konoha, but it was the nine-tailed fox, the strongest of the Bijū, and no mortal could ever hope to kill it. It was on a rampage, and the Konoha Shinobi were being slaughtered by the dozens." Naruto said. Hermione was hanging on his every word, waiting for him to continue.

"The Yondaime Hokage – the fourth Hokage – was considered one of the strongest Shinobi in the world at the time. He had created several original ninjutsu, defeated entire armies by himself, and was a master of Fuinjustu, the art of Seal-Making. He devised a seal that would be able to contain the Kyūbi, imprisoning it and effectively eliminating the threat," Hermione looked awed. "Only there were a few catches… one was that he had to give up his own life to seal the beast away," Hermione's eyes widened. He was willing to go that far to protect his village? "The other was that he had to seal the beast into a newborn infant." He said, gaining a far off look in his eyes. Hermione looked absolutely horrified. Sealing a bloodthirsty beast into an infant?

"The beast's corrupted Chakra is so great that only a newborn infant's chakra coils – the part of the body what holds Chakra – would've been able to adapt to the massive influx of tainted energy. If it were sealed into an adult, the overwhelming amount of Chakra would overload the person's Chakra coils, likely resulting in death and the escape of the beast. If it were sealed into an inanimate object, the Kyūbi would have escaped within seconds, as the primary force preventing the beast from escaping is the willpower of the container." Naruto explained. "The Yondaime, being the honorable man he was, couldn't ask anyone to offer up their newborn, so he took an orphan born just hours before – the youngest he could find – and sealed the Kyūbi away into the infant's stomach, sacrificing his own life to protect the village. He was hailed as a great hero for what he did, and his final wish was that the infant be seen as a hero as well for holding back the malicious power that had threatened to annihilate the village. The infant, however, was most certainly not seen as a hero." Hermione's eyebrows furrowed once again at this piece of information.

"The infant was seen as a demon, the Kyūbi incarnate, by the civilian population. Most of the Shinobi in the village were smart enough to know that the Yondaime had _sealed_ the Kyūbi, and that the child was only it's jailor, but the civilians were blinded by their hate. The boy was scorned as he grew up in the orphanage, and was thrown out at the age of four. The Hokage at the time, the Sandaime – the third Hokage – gave the boy an apartment in the red-light district – the only building that would take him – and gave him a monthly penance to live off of. Most of the villagers wouldn't even look at him though, much less sell him anything. The people who _did _sold him old and rotten merchandise, charging him twice the cost of premium goods. What should have been more than enough to live off of was barely enough to get by."

Hermione was staring at Naruto in horror at this point.

"Any attempts to become friends with children his own age were foiled by their parents or caretakers, who told them to 'Stay away from the demon child'. Most of the children began imitating their parents' behavior and the child was quickly isolated and left to fend for himself, with no friends or caretakers."

Naruto paused for several moments, several less than welcome memories surfacing in his mind. This gave Hermione a chance to speak.

"Y-you're… this child is you, isn't it?" She asked shakily. She didn't want to believe it, but Naruto knew too much for him to be recounting someone else's story. She had thought that _she_ had a rough time growing up because of her bookworm nature, but this was just… wrong.

"Yeah…" Naruto said quietly. "I told you the story of my life wasn't going to be pleasant, didn't I? It doesn't exactly get better, either." Hermione actually looked _afraid_ of the rest of it, but eventually nodded and quietly asked him to continue, insisting that she _had_ to know. Naruto sighed once again. She knew it had to be hard for him. If it were hard for her to _hear,_ it must've been infinitely worse to live through.

"I was ostracized from pretty much all social interactions save for the occasional talk with the Sandaime. I became self-sufficient fairly quickly without anyone to care for me, which I'm actually kind of grateful for. I knew how to live without any outside help by the age of five." Hermione was no longer hanging on his every word. She looked like she didn't want to hear anymore, but she didn't say anything, so Naruto continued.

"The assassination attempts began around the age of six."

Hermione was starting to shake a little, and Naruto actually felt kind of sorry for her.

"I was born on October 10th, the same day that the Kyūbi attacked Konoha. As a result, many decided that was the best day to get their 'revenge' on me, as most of them saw me as the Kyūbi incarnate. They hadn't really gone very far before, primarily due to the protection of the Sandaime, until my sixth birthday. One of the guards assigned to protect me that night had lost most of his loved ones when the Kyūbi attacked, and viewed me as the Kyūbi just like most of the civilians. He rushed into my room before any of the other guards could react and nearly severed both of my arms from my body before they managed to restrain him. I was in the hospital for a few days after that… One of the few good things about holding the Kyūbi in your gut is that it gives you amazing regenerative powers. That's the reason I was able to appear here with a six-inch hole in my chest and be walking around the next day."

Hermione was now shaking like a leaf. She didn't really seem to be looking at anything in particular, she was just gazing off into the distance with a blank look.

"There were three more assassination attempts after that day, until the age of eight, when I entered the Shinobi academy and the Sandaime assigned a full-time guard to me to ensure that nothing else would happen. I've officially died twice in my life. The first just after the second assassination attempt, when I was declared dead for nearly ten minutes before my regenerative powers brought me back, and the second only weeks ago, during a battle against the right-hand-man of Orochimaru, one of the strongest Shinobi Konoha has produced who betrayed the village and went rouge."

Hermione was hugging her knees to her chest now, curled into a tight ball on one side of the couch.

"My life got a lot better after the Academy, I'm happy to tell you. I took me a while, mainly because the teachers tried to stunt my growth as much as possible, but I graduated eventually. I was placed on a team with two other Genin – Shinobi fresh out of the academy – and a Jounin sensei – an elite Shinobi with experience – and went on missions with them. We got into a lot of tight situations – so much so that I've been _near_ death too many times to count – but I think it's safe to say we all became friends."

Hermione's withdrawal into herself seemed to lessen slightly after that. Naruto decided that he wouldn't tell her about all of the trouble he had gone through as a genin. If she reacted that badly to his childhood, she would probably start shutting down when he told her how his best friend had shoved a lightning-covered hand through his chest not even an hour prior to his arrival at Hogwarts, or how he had battled and defeated the massive Shukaku, the one-tailed Bijū, by summoning an equally massive toad that could speak and wielded a rather large blade.

Seeing that her condition wasn't exactly getting much better – he thought he saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes – Naruto turned to Hermione.

"Are you going to be okay?" He asked quietly.

When she didn't respond and only continued to shake, he scooted across the couch and cautiously wrapped his arm around her shoulders, hoping to offer what little comfort he could. He had known that his story was bad, but he hadn't expected her to react so harshly. If he told anyone else, he would have to tone the story down a little bit. His attempts at comforting her appeared to have a slight affect, as her shivering and shaking lessened marginally.

"Is it all true?" She asked quietly after several moments of silence. Naruto held back a chuckle. She was shaking like a leaf and she still wanted to make sure he wasn't just lying to her to gain favor or something along those lines. Instead he just held her a little closer.

"Yeah… it's all true." Naruto said just as quietly. He felt like if he spoke any louder, she would curl back into a ball and never come out again. "I had… an extremely hard childhood. But it only made me stronger and prepared me for life as a Shinobi, as much as I hate to say it."

"But _nobody_ should have to live like that, ostracized from society and left to fend for themselves…" She mumbled, leaning her head onto his shoulder and shuddering a little. "How…" She hesitated, but seemed to gather her resolve. "How did you turn out to be such a compassionate person? From what I've seen at Hogwarts, you're one of the kindest people I've known, and you act civil to everyone, even people you don't like very much. Why didn't you turn out…" She trailed off, searching for a word.

"Evil? Dark?" Naruto finished for her. She nodded and sniffed a little. She seemed to be recovering a little faster now. "You know… I'm not entirely sure." He said, earning a surprised gaze from Hermione. "I've never wanted to harm the village or anyone in it, nor felt the urge to do anything 'evil'. The worst I've done is prank them into oblivion by turning all of their underwear pink, or defacing the village's greatest monument." He told her, chuckling slightly.

She gazed at him with wonder and curiosity before accepting his answer and leaning into his shoulder more. They sat like that for several minutes, Hermione recovering from her shakes and just leaning her head on his shoulder, her eyelids suddenly becoming much heavier.

"I think it's time for you to get to sleep," Naruto said, noticing her losing struggle to keep her eyes open. She looked at him with a hint of surprise.

"You're not going to try to grill me about what I think of you?" She asked curiously, her words slightly slurred in her weariness.

"It takes longer than a few minutes to decide if you trust someone or not, so I'm not going to push it. Besides, it's past one in the morning and you need to get to sleep, so it can wait. However, I _will_ ask you not to share my story with anyone, not even Harry, Ron, or Ginny." He said seriously.

She nodded her consent – it was a pretty personal matter, after all – and her eyes widened a fraction. She hadn't been expecting to stay awake this long, she still had classes the next day, and she was already exhausted from her daily use of the Time-Turner that extended her days by several hours. She began mumbling about getting back to her dorm room, attempting to get up when Naruto scooped her up in his arms and began carrying her out of the room, eliciting a small 'eep' from the girl, who glared half-heartedly at the blond-haired boy.

"You wouldn't even make it halfway up the stairs before you fell asleep," Naruto told her with a chuckle. She mumbled her thanks as Naruto made his way up the stairs to the girls' dormitories, leaning into his chest. Ron and Harry had thankfully informed him earlier that the stairs were charmed to turn into a kind of slide whenever a male stepped foot on them to keep boys out of the girls' dorms. Naruto was slightly glad the Hermione was asleep, as realizing that he was walking on the wall up the staircase would likely cause her to freak out again. Either that, or she would demand that he illustrated more of his Shinobi abilities.

He found the third year girls' dormitories – the third door up, since they were sorted by year – and quietly snuck into the room after making sure that the other inhabitants were asleep. He placed her into the bed and pulled the covers up as quietly as he could, earning a mumbled 'Thanks' from Hermione before she fell back to sleep. He snuck out of the room and back down the stairs as quickly and quietly as he could. Hopefully, she would be able to trust him at least a little now. He knew Hermione was not the gossiping type, and she seemed incredibly trustworthy, so he had faith that she wouldn't tell anyone.

He made his way back to his room, the portrait opening once again without mentioning a password, which slightly irked Naruto, as it wasn't doing its job (even if it was nice to not have to say a password to come and go).

He quickly changed into his night-clothes and got into bed. He wasn't worried about the time, as Shinobi had to live off of only a few hours of sleep each day on some missions, and Naruto had dealt with that on the mission to Wave several times, along with the Chunin Exams.

The telling of essentially his life story had brought back many memories of both his childhood and his genin career, most of them unpleasant. He grimaced at the unwelcomed memories and focused instead on his friends and comrades. He was certain Tsunade and Jiraya would be looking for him – if he hadn't been declared dead or KIA, that was. He really hoped that that wasn't the case. If anyone had a chance at finding a way from his world, time, dimension or whatever to this one, it would be Jiraya and his mastery of seals. Either him or Orochimaru, and the prospect of the latter coming to this world – and perhaps meeting Voldemort – was… he didn't even want to think about the effects it could have. One madman was bad enough, but unleashing _two_ insane and powerful people upon the world? He decided it was best not to dwell on such things and slowly drifted off to sleep.

/~{~(~)~}~\

Naruto once again woke up much earlier than he would've liked. However, his desire for food once again dragged him out of bed and he began his morning rituals. After a quick shower, he dressed in another black T-Shirt with a red spiral design on it and another pair of black ANBU pants, placing various ninja tools into its many hidden pockets – it made him feel a little more comfortable.

He proceeded to climb through the portrait-hole, emerging to find Ginny and Hermione once again waiting in the common room – this time without arguing. He gave Ginny a smile – which she returned enthusiastically – and said hello. He turned and greeted Hermione, who smiled a little (though it seemed slightly forced) and greeted him politely in return. He still didn't know what she thought of him after the previous night, but at least she seemed to be a little more relaxed around him now.

"Ready for breakfast?" Ginny asked him. He assured her he was and they left the common room, Hermione quietly saying that she was going to wait for Harry and Ron to come down before eating.

As they walked, Ginny turned to Naruto tentatively.

"Hermione was… different this morning," She started. "Last night she said she was going to wait in the common room until you returned, but I went up to the dorms before you got back. What happened? I've never seen her attitude towards someone change so much in one day." She said. She seemed somewhat amazed that Naruto had been able to change her attitude towards him in so short a time. The previous morning she had been arguing about his trustworthiness, and Ginny had been prepared for another 'discussion' (this time a little further away from the portrait of a ninja), but Hermione hadn't argued against her at all.

"Well, she was waiting for me when I got back late last night," Naruto began. "We… had a very long chat, before she got tired and we decided to turn in for the night. I'm not quite sure what she thinks yet, and I'm not going to push her decision, but I'm confident that when she decides, she'll tell me."

Ginny wanted a much more thorough explanation about their late night 'chat', but respected Naruto's privacy enough not to pry if he didn't want to tell. Besides, she could always press Hermione for information later, even if she had been unsuccessful while waiting for Naruto to come out. She sincerely hoped that Hermione would see him as a friend now, or at least not be so untrustworthy of him. Naruto was one of Ginny's only friends at Hogwarts – the others being Luna and the Golden Trio – and she didn't want to have to chose between Naruto and Hermione. She had grown fairly close to Naruto over just the past few days (largely in part to Naruto's defense of her in Potions on his very first actual day in Hogwarts and the resulting interactions), and desperately wanted to keep his friendship intact, though she hoped she wasn't coming off as clingy.

They continued on to the Great Hall, where Naruto once again started shoveling ramen into his mouth like it was a black hole.

Breakfast was relatively uneventful, and Naruto, Ginny, and the Golden Trio proceeded to go to each of their classes for the day. Naruto first went to Charms with the second year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. They were beginning their textbooks, the first chapter of which explained how to power up spells by gathering energy prior to the actual casting of the spell. Professor Flitwick had the students work on this by casting _Wingardium Leviosa_ in this manner (He cast a repelling charm on the ceiling so that the overpowered spell wouldn't send objects flying through the classroom above them). Naruto – curious about the tactic and wanting to practice with magic – discreetly tried the method in the back of the classroom. He focused on using Chakra the same way he had the previous night during his lessons with Dumbledore. He first tried the spell normally, making sure he had the hand signs right, then – when he was successful with a quill he had 'borrowed' from one of the students (He _was_ planning on putting it back in its place when class ended) – tried using the method that Professor Flitwick had explained.

He gathered a fairly large amount of Chakra and then tried the spell once again, sending the quill rocketing up to the ceiling, which promptly repelled it down towards Naruto before it could even touch. Satisfied with his success, Naruto tried it once more, this time gathering much more Chakra than he had the previous time. When he performed the overcharged spell, he felt a strong shock travel up his arms and the quill flew up towards the ceiling so fast he could barely track its movement. However, the quill did not come back down. What _did _come back down was a small pile of ashes and the faint scent of something burning. Naruto glanced towards the rest of the class and the professor walking up and down the aisles of students, and thankfully they had not noticed anything peculiar. He glanced upward and found an angry scorch mark on the ceiling.

Naruto quickly stopped his attempts at the spell and tried to figure out what had happened. Had he put too much Chakra into the spell? He decided to try the spell again later that night when he had some privacy. The rest of the class was fairly uneventful, several students had not quite gotten the hang of the trick, but their classmates were helping them and Professor Flitwick assured them they'd have another chance to practice the next time they had class. The class ended and everyone scurried out of the classroom and into the now hectic corridors of the castle.

Naruto stood in a fairly abandoned corridor just off the main hall a ways away from the classroom, pondering on which class to go to next, when Luna appeared in front of him seemingly out of nowhere and looked at him with that 'perpetually surprised' look she always seemed to have adorning her face. Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin at her sudden presence. How had he not noticed her approach? He was a _ninja_ for Kami's sake, twelve-year-olds shouldn't be able to surprise him!

"Hello, Naruto." She greeted, tilting her head to one side slightly.

"Uhh… Hi, Luna." Naruto said lamely in return. She blinked owlishly – almost as if she were confused.

"What were you doing in the back of the classroom in Charms?" Luna questioned innocently. Crap! Naruto had thought nobody had noticed him working. Well, he figured _someone_ was bound to have seen him with a class that big, so he was just glad that he was acquainted with the person who had.

"I… I was trying to perform the spell like Professor Flitwick said, but I didn't have much luck." He half lied. He didn't want anyone to know that he could perform magic.

"Really?" She asked, fiddling absently with one of her silvery-blond locks of hair. "Because I saw you perform it twice on a quill. It was remarkably strong, really. I thought you might have been distracted by some Blubbering Humdingers at first."

Naruto laughed nervously, deciding not to ask what Blubbering Humdingers were in light of the recent information. "You saw me, did you? You aren't going to tell anyone, are you?" He asked. How had he not noticed her watching him? She must have been watching him for a while if she knew that much, but he hadn't noticed anything!

"I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to." She said politely, a small frown adorning her features for some reason or another.

"Thanks. I don't really want anyone knowing that I can perform magic." He said with a sigh of relief.

"Okay," She said almost breathlessly. Naruto was going say something when she hugged him tightly, burying her face in his chest. Before he could do anything in response, she had released him. "Now I feel much better." She said with a grin. Was it just him or was there a hint of slyness in that grin?

"I'll see you later, Naruto." She said, waving. He bid her goodbye and she turned and walked off to whatever class she had after Charms. Naruto stood there for several moments, wondering what the hell had just transpired. She felt better after she hugged him? Had she been feeling bad? Naruto hadn't noticed, and it kind of made him feel like a jerk. He chalked it up to Luna being an odd individual – though he wasn't going to start calling her Loony.

Naruto shook his head hoping to clear some of his confusion (It didn't work) and proceeded to third year Defense Against the Dark Arts, hoping he wasn't late. Professor Lupin's mentioning of the Boggart had gotten his attention, and he was curious now.

He arrived in the classroom just before class was scheduled to start and received a slight grin from Professor Lupin.

"Ah, Naruto, come to watch the class again?" He asked politely. Naruto nodded in the affirmative and Lupin cleared his throat to quiet the class.

"Good afternoon," He began. "You may all put your books back into your bags, Today's lesson will be a practical lesson, and you will only require your wands." He finished, as the students began putting their things away.

Naruto met up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and they followed Lupin through the deserted corridors, encountering a poltergeist named Peeves on the way (Who Naruto thought he may come to like, if the stories about the ghost's prankster nature were founded), before they reached the staffroom. They proceeded inside, and as they did, a sneering Professor Snape quickly exited the room with a quick comment towards one of the Gryffindors, who turned beet red. The Golden Trio informed him that it was Neville Longbottom, a shy boy, and that he was horrible at potions, a trait which Snape of course despised.

Lupin said something to Neville, and then walked towards the back end of the room, towards an old wardrobe. As he approached it, it began shaking, making several of the students jump. Naruto grinned mischievously at Hermione – who pouted and glared half-heartedly at him again – and focus on Professor Lupin. He explained that contained in the wardrobe was a boggart, and that each student in the class was going to face the boggart one at a time. He explained that boggarts became confused in large crowds, and that he would call out students one by one to face the creature. He taught them the spell to defeat it – _Riddikulus – _and had them try it out a few times, explaining that a boggart was actually defeated by laughter, and that it would change the boggart into something humorous or amusing that caused people to laugh. Naruto tried the spell a few times and soon got the hang of it (Hadn't Dumbledore said it would be _harder_ for him to learn spells than justu?).

Neville was the first one up to face the boggart. Lupin cast a spell unlocking the wardrobe and the boggart immediately turned into Professor Snape – apparently Neville's worst fear. Neville cast the spell, which caused it to turn into Snape wearing Neville's grandmother's clothing, before Lupin called out the next student – Parvati – and the boggart turned into a mummy. While the students were dealing with the boggart, Naruto approached Professor Lupin somewhat cautiously.

"Uhm, Professor Lupin?" He started nervously, earning an encouraging gesture to continue after Lupin called out the next student. "I was wondering if I could face the boggart after the class is done with it…" He requested.

"Well…" Lupin began, after calling for someone named Dean to come forward. "I've been thinking about hosting a 'Boggart Night', so to speak. If you want, I'll post the information after class today and you can decide if you want to come." He said.

Naruto was slightly disappointed that he couldn't face the boggart immediately, but consented and confirmed his participation since he would be able to face it anyway.

Naruto watched the rest of the class deal with their boggarts in slight anticipation. Truthfully, he had no idea what his boggart would turn into. Many of the students' fears seemed fairly simple: Ron's was a spider, and that seemed to be a fairly common one.

Naruto noticed that Lupin stopped the boggart immediately when it turned to Harry, which caused some suspicion to surface. Something was going on with Harry – or perhaps Lupin. Either way, Lupin did not want Harry to face the boggart, and both Hermione and Harry seemed to catch on to this as the former furrowed her eyebrows once again and the latter frowned a little. He seemed fairly used to being treated differently.

Lupin stopped the students and used some spell to force the boggart back into the wardrobe it had originally been stored in before locking the wardrobe with another spell and leading the students back to the classroom.

After class ended, Naruto walked out of the room to find a growing crowd around one of the boards placed along the hall. There were several announcements posted on it, as well as several things from Filch, Hogwarts' caretaker. The thing that had caught the students' attention, however, was fairly obvious. Lupin had been prompt in his promise to post information on his 'Boggart Night', and it was apparently making quite a buzz. Naruto managed to make his way through the throng of students surrounding the board and read the post. The event would be held in the Great Hall the next night – Saturday night, to allow people some sleep if the event dragged on – and anyone could attend. There would be several professors overseeing the whole event, and only third years and higher could actually face the boggart, but anyone was allowed to watch.

Naruto was almost giddy with excitement. Sure, there was a little apprehension at facing something he feared, but it couldn't be too bad, could it? And the professors would interfere if things got out of hand, anyway.

"What's all the fuss about?"

Hermione broke him out of his thoughts as the golden trio approached the ever-growing crowd of students. He broke through the mob and made his way back to the three standing on the edge, not wanting to risk getting trampled in the mass of bodies crowding the board.

"I asked Professor Lupin if I could have a go at the boggart earlier, but he told me that he was holding a 'Boggart Night' that would let people who decided to attend fact the boggart. He just posted a notice about it on the board." Naruto explained, causing Harry to adopt a determined look which neither Naruto nor Hermione failed to notice. There was _definitely_ something going on with Harry.

"So I take it you're going to come?" Ron asked curiously.

"Yup," Naruto confirmed. "I have no idea what my boggart will be, but I can't pass up something like this, can I?" He said with a laugh. Hermione didn't seem to think it was very funny. She pulled him aside quickly – out of hearing range of her two male companions – and confronted him in a quiet, yet heated voice.

"You don't know what your boggart will be like?" She asked incredulously.

"Nope, not one clue." Naruto responded.

"Are you _crazy_? You told me how absolutely _horrible_ your life was for years, and you want to face a creature that turns into something you _fear_?"

Well… when she put it that way, it did kind of make sense…

"I can understand what you mean, Hermione," Naruto began, continuing before Hermione could get started with another argument. "But the way I see it, this will probably be one of my only chances to face a boggart _safely_, and I don't want to pass it up. Besides, if anything bad happens, the professors that will be watching over the whole event can interfere and stop the boggart themselves." He said with a nod. Hermione seemed to be slightly comforted at the thought of the professors' presence at the event, but she still looked worried.

"Well, if the professors are in attendance, then I guess things can't get too out of hand… I'm just… worried about you Naruto."

"Well you _shouldn't_ worry about me," Naruto said as they began walking back to the other two. "I can take care of myself if things get a little out of hand," He leaned in close, his voice quieting in a playful manner. "I'm a ninja, remember?"

She chuckled a little and then nodded, eliciting a smile and a one-armed hug from the blonde, which in turn earned curious looks from both Ron and Harry as they approached.

The foursome walked away from the group of students discussing what their plans for the next night would be. Both Harry and Naruto were determined to face the boggart. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it), there were no more classes for the day, and the weekend was just around the corner, so there wasn't much to distract him from his thoughts. They ate dinner without much excitement, though the 'Boggart Night' was quickly becoming the talk of the school. Students were even beginning to place bets on what certain people's boggarts would be (Discreetly, of course, though Naruto thought several of the teachers had caught on), and Naruto seemed to be a fairly popular focal point, along with Harry, as well as a few other students that had claimed they wouldn't miss the event for anything in the world. Several people even approached him and questioned him on his fears or just asked what he thought it would be outright.

Ginny seemed pretty excited when she appeared at the table, as well. She claimed she wanted to see what Naruto's boggart would be more than anything, which and the golden trio agreed with to a lesser extent.

Naruto almost had to beat the student body off with a stick when they wouldn't leave him alone on the way to the common room. Luckily, however, the golden trio helped him get some distance between him and the interrogators using secret passages and shortcuts.

The five young teens spent the night discussing their plans for the weekend while they started on their homework assigned to them over the period (or at least Hermione did), and Naruto didn't realize how late it was until the clock struck midnight.

Naruto bid them goodnight and strolled through the portrait of the ninja (which once again opened without a password—Naruto was starting to think it was doing that just to annoy him!) and adorned his nightly wear. He fell into a slightly restless sleep, the thoughts of the coming night plaguing him. What _would_ his boggart be? Hermione had actually raised a fair point—his boggart could turn into a large number of horrible things, mainly because Naruto had _experience_ with a large number of horrible things. It could turn into an assassin, or Orochimaru, or—Kami forbid—the Kyūbi itself. He could only hope that the boggart couldn't change size if it came to that, because it would likely destroy the castle if that happened.

Whatever the case was, Naruto would go to the event all the same. The temptation of the multitude of possibilities the boggart held was too great to turn down.

In hindsight, Naruto should've _known_ something would happen. Something always did.

/~{~(~)~}~\

Naruto woke up at a reasonable time the following day. It was Saturday, so breakfast was served pretty much right up until lunch began, allowing students to sleep in if they wished.

And Naruto definitely wished to sleep in.

Unfortunately his anxiety wouldn't let him.

Naruto tried his best to stay asleep for several more minutes before groaning and forcing himself out of the bed. He stumbled into the bathroom and took a hot shower before dressing casually for the day (He still kept hidden weapons on his person, just in case) and strolling out into the common room.

There were several groups of students gathered in different sections of the room. One was doing homework, another looked to be discussing something rather heatedly, and a third just seemed to be screwing around. He spied the golden trio plus one sitting on a set of couches and armchairs in the corner (mainly because Ginny was frantically waving at him) and sauntered over to them, seating himself on a cushion next to Ginny.

He found out it was almost lunch time from the group and decided he'd just skip breakfast and have a large lunch. Hermione was once again scribbling away at some homework (Seriously, how much did they get?) while the others were just chatting about this and that, looking up and contributing every so often. After several changes in topic and discussion, Naruto caught some interesting tidbits. He was able to ascertain that a mass-murderer named Sirius Black was after Harry and that they suspected he would try to get the young boy—even if he was at Hogwarts, which was supposed to be one of the safest places on the continent.

Yeah, there was _definitely_ something going on with Harry, Naruto just didn't know what it was. He supposed he should ask Hermione.

After another uneventful half-hour, they decided to go down for lunch.

The Great Hall was only about half full when they arrived, as lunch was also served right up until the next meal. The talk of the school still appeared to be the upcoming 'Boggart Night' and people from all four houses were talking and discussing what they thought someone else's would be.

Once Naruto was done inhaling several dozen bowls of ramen, he caught a glimpse of Dumbledore beckoning him over, and approached the head table.

Dumbledore told him that they wouldn't have lessons that night—due to the upcoming event—and that they'd postpone it until the next night. Naruto voiced his acceptance and returned to Gryffindor table.

He responded to the Golden Trio's questioning with "Dumbledore's been teaching me how to perform magic, so he was just telling me tonight's lesson was postponed because of the Boggart Night" and it seemed to satisfy them, though Hermione seemed to want to know more. Naruto chuckled a little. She just had to know everything there was to know, didn't she?

As they walked back to the Gryffindor common room he suddenly realized something.

He should be using Kage Bunshin to train as often as possible! He had unknowingly used them to explore the castle just days earlier, and he could still remember what they had found, so he figured he could use them to train himself in ninjutsu, possibly genjutsu (since frankly he wasn't so great at that) and even magic. Hell, he could make them read books from the library and gain knowledge on dozens of subjects in a matter of minutes!

As soon as they entered the Gryffindor common room, he disappeared into his room to create over three dozen Bunshin, ordering them to train in various things stretching from chakra control to using his newfound magical abilities properly. He was glad that Dumbledore had given him a large room, but he'd need to find somewhere else to train soon. Maybe the forest near Hogwarts was a good place? It was 'Forbidden', so not many students went there, and he was certain he was fast enough to outrun anyone who happened to stumble across him.

He would also need to find a way to get his Kage Bunshin into the library so they could read up on different types of magic. Perhaps they could henge into students like they had when exploring the castle? He'd figure something out later.

He made his way back out to the common room, where Hermione gave him a questioning look that he that he dismissed with a wave of his hand, saying it wasn't important. Harry and Ron were in the middle of a game similar to Shougi, though the pieces were different and they moved on their own—another feat of magic, he supposed. Judging by how Ron was doing, either Harry was an extremely horrid strategist—which wasn't likely—or Ron was an amazing strategist—which, based on his moves, he was. He would have to keep an eye on him, as he didn't look like the 'strategic' type, he looked more like the 'charge in headfirst' type.

The next hour or two were just spent watching the two young men play various games, sometimes tuning in to their discussions or listening to the consistent scratching of Hermione's quill on her parchment. It took Naruto some time to realize that Ginny—who he had sat next to again—was clutching his arm and resting her head on his shoulder while passing time in the same manner.

Naruto turned a slight shade of red at the close contact. He hadn't grown up with much physical contact at all, but he wasn't utterly oblivious to women, and the point that Ginny wasn't too bad on the eyes didn't help lighten the redness any.

The sound of Hermione's quill scribbling away stopped and Naruto glanced over to see her eying them with an eyebrow raised in amusement and a slight smirk. She shook her head a little bit and chuckled before the scribbling continued.

Naruto was starting to like it here.

/~{~(~)~}~\

_**Original Post ~ 4/29/2012 ~ 13,188 words**_

~ A/N: Well, sorry again for the long wait, but on the bright side this chapter is over 13,100 words long, nearly doubling the word count for the story :D As always, reviews are greatly appreciated (as long as they are not flames or mere complaints, which will be promptly ignored). However, simply 'cool chapter' or 'update soon' are not reviews, they are requests. If you're going to review, please tell me what you liked, what you didn't, what I should change, etc.

~_F.A.R._


End file.
